THE 



LIFE AND TRAVELS 



MUNGO PARK; 



WITH THE 

ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH FROM THE JOURNAL OF ISAACO 
THE SUBSTANCE OF LATER DISCOVERIES REL- 
ATIVE TO HIS LAMENTED FATE, 
AND 

THE TERMINATION OF THE NIGER. 




NEW-YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, CLIFF-ST. 

1851, 



r^. 



^0^^^^^^iS^ 



>"=v 



Knterea, according to Act of Congress, ih ttie year 1840, bf 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-Yo-*' 



'V 



/■ S^' 



T 



ADVERTISEMENT 



Few subjects have excited a more lively interost 
Among the curious and the learned, than the geo- 
graphical problem with regard to the termination 
of the Niger. This question was at length put at 
rest by the successful expedition of the Landers,* 
but not until after more than half a century of fruit- 
less ef]Lrt and speculation, during which many val- 
uable lives had been sacrificed in attempting to 
trace to its outlet the course of this mysterious riv- 
er. Among those who had generously devoted 
themselves to this perilous enterprise, none was 
more distinguished than Mungo Park ; whose un- 
timely fate, after having triumphed over the most 
appalling difficulties, excited the deepest commis- 
eration and regret. Besides a minute and copious 
narration of the two expeditions of this celebrated 
traveller, the volume here offered to the public con- 
tains a succinct and interesting account of the la- 
bours of subsequent adventurers in the same field, 
bringing down the subject of African discovery to 
the most recent period. H. & B. 

New- York, May, 1840. 

* See Landers' Expeditipn to the Niger, Nos xxxv. and xvxvi 
of Harpers' Family Library. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

[1771-1795.] 

Birth and Education of Mungo Park.— His apprenticeship to a 
Surgeon. — His Arrival in London. — Hi.s Appointment of As- 
sistant-surgeon in an East India Ship. — His Voyage to India 
and back. — The African Association.— Park's Services ac- 
cepted by them. — His Motives for offering them. — His In- 
structions Page 13 

CHAPTER n. 

[1795.] 

Park's Voyage to Africa. — His Stay at Pisania. — His Illness 
and Occupations. — Preparations for his Journey to the Inte- 
rior. — The Negro Nations near the Gambia — The Feloops — 
The Jaloofs, or Yaloofs— The Foulahs — The Mandingoes. — 
Illustration of their System of Judicature . . .18 

CHAPTER III. 

[1795.] 

Departure of Park from Pisania. — His Equipment and Party. 
— His Arrival at Jindey. — Mandingo Story-teller. — Park's in- 
voluntary Present to the King of Walli. — His Arrival at Medi 
na, the Capital of Woolii. — His Interviews with the King. — 
Saphies, or Charms of the Negroes. — Description of Mumbo 
Jumbo. — Park's Departure from the Territory of Woolii . 28 

CHPATER IV. 

[1795-1796.] 

Park's Journey across the Wilderness into Bondou. — Negro 
Method of treating refractory Asses. — Fishery on the River 
Faleme. — Park's Arrival at the Capital of Bondou.— His In- 
terviews with the King.— The Royal Dwelling.— The King's 



Viil COiXTEINTS. 

Admiration of Park's new blue Coat, and the Consequences 
— Park's Interview with the King's Wives. — His Departure 
from Bondou, and Journey into Kajaaga. — The SerawooUis. 
— Park's Ill-treatment at Joag. — His Distresses.— Humanity 
of a Female Slave. — Park's Journey from Kajaaga into Kas- 
son Page 35 

CHAPTER V. 

[1796.] 

Park's Arrival in Kasson.— His Detention at Teesee. — Conver 
sion of all tlie inhabitants to Mohammedanism. — Rapacity oi 
the Governor. — Park's Arrival at Jumbo.— Reception of a Na- 
tive who accompanied him by the Townspeople. — Park's 
Journey to Kooniakary. — His Audience of the King of Kas- 
son. — Obstacles to his Progress. — His Journey into Kaarta. — 
An amusing Adventure. — Park's Arrival at Kemmoo, the 
Capital of Kaarta. — His Resolution to proceed through the 
Moorish Kingdom of Ludamar . . . . .51 

CHAPTER VT. 

[1796.] 

Journey into the Moorish Kingdom of Ludamar. — A Youth 
murdered by the Moors. — Scene at his Death. — Particulars 
of Major Houghton's Fate. — Park's Arrival at Jarra. — Refusal 
of his Attendants to Proceed. — Fidelity of his Boy.— His Ill- 
treatment by the Moors at Deena. — His Journey to Dalli, and 
kind Reception there.— His Seizure by the Moors at Salee. — 
His Conveyance to Benown. — His Treatment by Ali. — Insult- 
ing Behaviour of the Moors towards him . . .61 

CHAPTER VII. 

[1796.] 

Park's Debut as a Barber, and the Result.— Rapacity of King 
Ali towards him— The Monarch's Perplexity at a Pocket 
Compass.— His Refusal to allow Park's Departure. — The 
Traveller's distressing Condition.- A Sand-wind.— Sultriness 
of the Weather. — Continued Ill-treatment of Park. — His 
Sufferings from Hunger.— Removal of the Moorish Camp. — 
Park's Introduction to Queen Fatima.— Excessive Heat and 
Scarcity of Water.— Park's Suffermgs from Thirst.— Fortu- 
nate Change in his favour '^5 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER VIII. 

[1796.] 

Departure of Park from Bnbaker. — All's Detention of his Boy, 
Demba. — His Grief and Indignation. — His Flight from Jarra 
with the Townspeople. — His Escape from a Party of Moors 
at Queira.— His Treatment by another Party.— His Joy at his 
Deliverance. — His Sufferings from Thirst in the Wilderness. — 
His Fainting upon the Sand. — Relief afforded him by a fall of 
Rain.— A narrow Escape.— Charity of an old Woman towards 
him. — His continued Risks. — His Arrival at Waiora beyond the 
reach of the Moors. — His Journey to Sego, and Discovery of 
the Niger Page 86 

CHAPTER IX. 

[1796.] 

The City of Sego. — Conduct of the King of Bambarra towards 
Park. — The Traveller's Distress, and the Kindness of a Ne- 
gro Woman towards him. — The King's Present to him.— His 
Progress Eastward. — His narrow Escape from a Lion. — His 
Arrival at Silla. — His Resolution not to proceed farther , 99 

CHAPTER X. 

[1796.] 

Park's Departure from Silla on his Return. — Difficulties of his 
Situation.— His Resolution to trace the Niger to the West- 
ward. — Dangers and Hardships of his Journey. — His Escape 
from a Lion. — His Saphies, or written Charms. — His Arrival 
at Bammakoo, and Departure from the Niger. — His Ill-treat- 
ment by Banditti. — His Consolation in Affliction. — Scarcity of 
Provisions, and its dreadful Effects. — A Night Adventure. — 
His arrival at Kamalia, and Determination to stop there . 107 

CHAPTER XL 

[1796-1797.] 

c'ark's Residence at Kamalia. — Description of that Town. — 
Park's Occupation during his Stay there. — Climate and Sea- 
sons of the Countries visited by him. — The Inhabitants, and 
their Religious Opinions. — Their Ignorance and Superstition. 
— Manufactures of Leather and Iron. — The Process of smelt- 
ing Iron 120 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

[1797-1798.] 

Slavery in Africa.— Different Kinds of Slaves.— Souices of Sla- 
very.— Modes of African Warfare.— Famine, and other Cau- 
ses of Slavery.- Mode of collecting Gold-dust.— Process of 
washing it. — Great Value of Salt in Manding. — Mode of pro- 
curing ivory. — Manner of hunting the Elephant . Page 133 

CHAPTER XIIL 

[1797.] 

Park's Departure from Kamalia with a Coffle of Slaves for the 
Gambia. — Difficulties of the Journey. — Crossing the Jallonka 
Wilderness.— Melancholy Fate of a Female Slave.— Arrival of 
the Coffle at Jindey.— Park's Arrival at Pisania. — His Voyage 
Home. — His Arrival in London 146 

CHAPTER XIV. 

[1797-1805.] 

Interest excited by Park's Return. — Publication of his Narra- 
tive. — Importance of his Discoveries, particularly concerning 
the Niger. — His Marriage.— His Anxiety to be again sent Out. 
— His Settlement at Peebles as a Surgeon. — His Dissatisfac- 
tion with his Occupation. — Application of the Government to 
him. — His Acceptance of their Offer. — Delays in the setting 
out of the Expedition.- Park'slnstructions . . . 155 

CHAPTER XV 

[1805.] 

Departure of Park on his Second Expedition. — His Proceedings 

at Goree. — His Confidence of Success.— High Spirits of the 

^ Troops.— Park's Letters from Kayee.— Real Difficulties of his 

Situation. —Dangers from the approach of the Rainy Season. 

— Park's Resolution to proceed ... .164 

CHAPTER XVL 

[1805.] 

Departure from Kayee and Commencement of the Journey into 
the Interior.— Difficulties of the first Day's March.— Order of 



CONTENTS. X 

Proceeding. — Arrival at Madina. — Rapacity of the King of 
Woolli.— Stratagem of the Soldiers to procure Water at Ka- 
nipe. — Fruit of the Nitta-trees. — Arrival at the Gambia. | 
Death of one of the Soldiers.— Hostile Conduct of the Chief 
at Badv, and the Results. — Attack made upon the Caravan by 
a Swarm ol Bees. — Park's Letters from Badoo . Page 170 

CHAPTER XVn. 

[1805.] 

Commencement of the Rainy Season. — Alarming Sickness. 
— Gold Mines at Shrondo. — Arrival at Fankia.— Difficult 
Mountain Pass. — Increase of the Sick. — Hostility of the Na- 
tives at Gimbia. — Face of the Country.— Its romantic Char- 
acter. — Sickness of the Men. — Park's personal Exertions. — 
Dangers from young Lions. — The Guide seized by a Croco- 
dile. — His Expedient to Escape. — Arrival at Keminoom. — 
Depredations of the Natives. — Continued Sickness. — Five 
Men left behind. — Illness of Mr. Anderson.— Park's Escape 
from three Lions.— His View of the Niger . . 180 

CHAPTER XVHL 

[1805.] 

Distressing Situation of Park. — His Embarcation on the Niger, 
— His Arrival at Marraboo. — At Samee. — His Speech to Man. 
song's Prime Minister. — Mansong's Reply. — Park's Arrival at 
Sansanding. — His Description of that Town.— His successful 
Trading there.— Death of his Brother-in-law, Mr. Anderson. 
— Completion of the Schooner Joliba. — Last Letters received 
from Park ... 202 

CHAPTER XIX. 

[1805-1830.] 

Rumours of Park*s Death.— Isaaco's Mission to inquire into their 
Truth.— Account of Park's Fate obtained from his Guide. — Its 
Confirmation by subsequent Travellers.— Clapperton's Ac- 
count — Exertions by the Brothers Lander to procure Park's 
Papers.— Memorials of him obtained by them . .214 
B 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

[1805-1830.] 

Historical Sketch of later Discoveries. — Four Hypotheses con- 
cerning the Termination of the Niger. — Hypothesis of its 
Identity with the Congo. — Park's Reasons in support thereof. 
— Reichard's Hypothesis of its Termination in the Gulf of 
Guinea. — Tuckey's Expedition to the Congo. — Clapperton's 
two Journeys.— Expedition of the Brothers Lander. — Their 
Success Page 236 



THE 



LIFE AND TRAVELI 



MUNGO PARK 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth and Education of Mungo Park.— His apprenticeship to a 
Surgeon. — His Arrival in London. — His Appointment of As- 
sistant-surgeon in an East India Ship. — His Voyage to India 
and back. — The African Association.— Park's Services ac- 
cepted by them.— His Motives for offering them. — His In 
structions. 

[1771—1795.] 

The honour of having given birth to Mungo 
Park belongs to Scotland. He was born on the 
10th of September, 1771, at Fowlshiels, a farm 
lying on the banks of the Yarrow, in the vicinity 
of the county town of Selkirk. His father, whose 
name likewise was Mungo, occupied this farm un- 
der the Duke of Baccleugh, and is described as a 
respectable yeoman of Ettrick Forest ; his mother 
was the daughter of a neighl^ouring farmer, Mr. 
John Hislop, of Tennis. They were the parents 
of a numerous offspring ; Mungo, the subject of 
our narrative, being the seventh child, and the third 



14 EDUCATION OF MUNGO PARK. 

son of a family of thirteen, of whom eight reached 
maturity. 

Mungo Park received ihe rudiments of his edu- 
cation in the house of his father, who with, a laud- 
able care for the instruction of his children, had 
engaged a private teacher to reside in his family. 
When he became of fitting age, he attended the 
Grammar-school at Selkirk, though he still contin- 
ued to reside at home. From his childhood he had 
show^n a great love of reading ; at school he was 
indefatigable in his application, and is said to have 
been much distinguished, and always at the head 
of his class. We are toid by his biographer, that 
" even at that early age he was reniarkable for 
being silent, studious, and thoughtful ; but some 
sparks of latent ambition occasionally broke forth ; 
and indications might even then be discovered of 
that ardent and adventurous turn of mind which 
distinguished him in after life, and which often lies 
concealed under a cold and reserved exterior."* 
Statements, however, of this kind are not of much 
value ; as but little reliance, generally speaking, 
can be placed upon alleged indications of a partic- 
ular disposition, which are not discovered until that 
disposition has fully developed itself. 

By his father, Mungo Park was originally des- 
tined for the Scottish Church ; but the medical 
profession being that of his own choice, he was ap- 
prenticed, at the age of fifteen, to Mr. Thomas 
Anderson, a respectable surgeon in Selkirk. With 
this gentleman (whose daughter he afterward mar« 
ried), he resided for three years, during which he 

* Account of his Life prefixed to the Journal of his second 
Mission. 



HE GOES TO INDIA* 15 

was not so entirely absorbed in his professional 
pursuits, as not to find time for continuing his gen- 
era! studies, and for attending occasionally at the 
Grammar-school. In 1789, when he quitted Mro 
Anderson, Park repaired to the University of Edin- 
burgh, where he was engaged for three years in the 
usual course of medical study. Of his academical 
life nothing particular is recorded, save the predi- 
lection which he manifested for botany. This pre- 
dilection he had a fortunate opportunity of gratify- 
ing in a tour which he made through the High- 
lands with his brother-in-law, Mr. James Dickson, 
a botanist of considerable celebrity ; and he con- 
tinued to retain it in after life. 

When he had completed his studies at Edin- 
burgh, Park went to London, in search of some 
medical employment ; in taking this step, he was 
doubtless much influenced by the hope of deriving 
assistance from his brother-in-law, Mr. Dickson, 
who was intimate with the leading men of science 
of that day. His expectation was realized ; Mr. 
Dickson introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks, whose 
influence obtained for him the appointment of as- 
sistant-surgeon to the Worceiser, East Indiaman. 
The connexion which thus commenced between 
Park and Sir Joseph Banks ripened into a friend, 
ship, which subsisted throughout life. 

The Worcester sailed for the East Indies in the 
month of February, 1792, and after a voyage to 
Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra, returned to 
England in the following year. The interval sup- 
plies us with nothing of importance in Park's ca- 
reer ; he availed himself of every opportunity of ob- 
taining information in his favourite scientific pur- 



16 THE xlFRICAN ASSOCIATION. 

suits, and collected many specimens in Botany 
and Natural History. In the third volume of the 
Transactions of the Linnsean Society is a paper 
by Park, describing eight new fishes from Sumatra ; 
he represents it as the fruit of his leisure hours du- 
ring his stay on that coast. 

After Park's return from the East Indies, he 
seems to have remained for some time in a state of 
uncertainty concerning his future pursuits. The 
medical profession, which was that of his choice, 
appears to have lost all its attractions as soon as 
he embraced it ; and although it is not known that 
he came to any final resolution with regard to con- 
tinuing in the service of the East India Company, 
it is probable that he was desirous of engaging in 
some more congenial employment. It happened 
fortunately at this moment, that an opportunity 
presented itself to him of entering upon the wide 
field of African discovery. 

In 1788, or about fiYe years before Park return- 
ed from India, there had been formed in London 
a society entitled the African Association, for pro- 
moting discoveries in the interior of Africa. One 
of their great objects was to obtain some authentic 
account of that great inland river of Africa, which 
had been for so many centuries vaguely spoken of 
by geographers under the name of the Niger. Mr. 
Ledyard, Mr. Lucas, and Major Houghton, had 
been sent out by them for this purpose. The first 
of these gentlemen had sunk under the climate ; 
the second had been obliged to return ; and intelli- 
gence had just been received of the death of the 
third. The Association became desirous of en- 
gaging some other person to prosecute their plans ; 



INSTRUCTIONS TO PARK. 17 

and Mungo Park offered himself for the service. 
After due inquiry, the Association accepted his 
offei . 

The motives which induced Park voluntarily to 
engage in a service which had hitherto proved so 
fatal, and which most persons regarded with horror, 
arc thus stated by himself : " I had a passionate 
desire to examine into the productions of a country 
so little known, and to become experimentally ac- 
quainted with the modes of life and character of the 
natives. I knew that I was able to bear fatigue, 
and I relied on my youth and the strength of my 
constitution to preserve me from the effects of the 
climate. The salary which the committee allowed 
was sufficiently large, and I made no stipulation 
for future reward. If I should, perish in my jour- 
ney, I was willing that my hopes and expectations 
should perish with me ; and if I should succeed in 
rendering the geography of Africa more familiar 
to my countrymen, and in opening to their ambition 
and industry new sources of wealth and new chan- 
nels of commerce, I knew that I was in the hands 
of men of honour, who would not fail to bestow 
that remuneration which my successful services 
should appear to them to merit." 

The instructions which Park received were 
"very plain and concise." He was directed, on 
his arrival in Africa, to pass on to the river Nigor, 
either by the way of Bambouk, or by such other 
route as would be found most convenient, to ascer- 
tain the course, and, if possible, the rise and ter- 
mination of that river ; and to use his utmost ex- 
ertions to visit the principal towns or cities in its 
neighbourhood, partic ^aHy Tombuctoo and Hous- 



18 park's first voyage. 

• '■ 

sa. He was then to be at liberty to return to 
Europe, either by the way of the Gambia, or by 
such other route as, under all the then existing 
circumstances of his situation and prospects, should 
appear to him to be most desirable. 



CHAPTER II. 

Park's Voyage to Africa. — His Stay at Pisania. — His Illness 
and Occupations.— Preparations for his Journey to the Inte- 
rior. — The Negro Nations near the Gambia — The Feioops — 
The Jaloofs, or Yaloofs— The Foulahs — The Mandingoes — 
Illustration of their Systeni of Judicature. 

[1795.] 

On the 22d of May, 1795, Park sailed from 
Portsmouth in the brig Endeavour, a small vessel 
trading to the Gambia for beeswax and ivory. 
He carried with him a recommendation to Dr. John 
Laidley, a resident for many years at the English 
factory of Pisania, on the banks of the Gambia^^-f 
together with a letter of credit on that gentleman 
for X200. On the 21st of June, after a pleasant 
voyage, the brig anchored at Jillifree, a town near 
the mouth of that river, on its northern bank ; and, 
proceeding up the stream, reached, on the 2d of 
July, Jonkakonda, a place of considerable trade, 
where the vessel was to take in part of her lading. 
Here Park was visited by Dr. Laidley, and invited 
to reside at his house in Pisania until an opportu- 
nity should offer of prosecuting the journey into 



HIS ILLNESS. 19 

the interior. Accordingly, at daybreak on the 
5th, he quitted Jonkakonda on horseback, and at 
eleven o'clock arrived at Pisania, which stands six- 
teen miles higher up the piver. 

Park remained at Pisania nearly five months. 
At the time of his arrival the white residents con- 
sisted only of Dr. Laidley, and two gentlemen who 
were brothers, of the name of Ainsley ; but their 
domestics were numerous. They enjoyed perfect 
security under the protection of the native king, 
and had the greatest part of the trade in their 
hands. Park's first employment was to learn the 
]\Jandingo tongue, which is the language in gener- 
al use"tTiroughout this part of Africa ; and to col- 
lect information respecting the countries which he 
intended to visit. 

In researches of this kind, and in observing the 
manners and customs of the natives, in a country 
so little known to the nations of Europe, and fur- 
nished with so many striking objects of nature, his 
time passed, he says, not unpleasantly ; and he be- 
gan to flatter himself that he had escaped the fever, 
or seasoning, to which Europeans, on their first ar- 
rival in hot climates, a e generally subject. " But, 
on the 31st of July," to use his own words, " I 
imprudently exposed myself to the night dew, in 
observing an eclipse of the moon, with a view to 
determine the longitude of the place ; the next day 
I found myself attacked with a smart fever and de- 
lirium : and such an illness followed as confined 
me to the house during the greatest part of Au- 
gust My recovery was very slow, but I embra- 
ced every short interval of convalescence to walk 
out, and make myself acquainted with the produc- 



20 THE RAINY SEASON. 

tions of the country. In one of those excursions, 
having rambled farther than usual in a hot day, I 
brought on a return of my fever, and on the 10th 
of September I wa^ again confined to my bed. 
The fever, however, was not so violent as before ; 
and in the course of three weeks I was able, when 
the weather would permit, to renew my botanical 
excursions ; and when it rained, I amused myself 
drawing plants, &c., in my chamber. The care 
and attention of Dr. Laidley contributed greatly to 
alleviate my sufferings ; his company and conversa- 
tion beguiled my tedious hours during that gloomy 
season when the rain falls in torrents ; when suffo- 
cating heats oppress by day, and when the night is 
spent by the terrified traveller hstening to the 
croaking of frogs (of which the numbers are be- 
yond imagination), the shrill cry of the jackal, and 
the deep howling of the hyaena ; a dismal concert, 
interrupted only by the roar of such tremendous 
thunder as no person can form a conception of 
but those who have heard it. 

So long as the rainy season did continue, any ad- 
vance into the interior of the country was impracti- 
cable ; its termination must therefore have been nat- 
urally looked forward to by Park with anxiety. On 
the 6th of October, the waters of the river Gambia, 
which had risen with the rains, were at the great- 
est height, being fifteen feet above the high-water 
mark of the tide ; they then began to subside, at 
first slowly, but afterward so very rapidly as some- 
times to sink more than a foot in twenty-four 
hours. By the beginning of November the river 
nad sunk to its former level, and the tide ebbed 
and flowed as usual. The atmosphere now grew 



THE FELOOPS. 21 

dry, and Park, recovering from the effects of his 
illness, began to think of his departure, this being 
reckoned the most proper season for travelling ; 
the natives had completed their harvest, and pro- 
visions were everywhere cheap and plentiful. He 
accordingly endeavoured to ascertain, through Dr. 
Laidley, when the first coffie^ would leave the Gam- 
bia for the Interior, in order that he might avail 
himself of the company and protection which it af- 
forded ; but learning that the time of its departure 
was very uncertain, and understanding that the Sla- 
tees (or native merchants), and others who would 
compose it, were rather averse to his purpose of 
joining them, he resolved to proceed without them, 
and not lose the advantage of the dry season. 
Preparations were therefore immediately commen- 
ced for the journey. 

During his stay at Pisania, Park collected some 
interesting information concerning the several ne- 
gro nations occupying the countries bordering on 
the Gambia, and, indeed, very widely spread over 
this part of x^frica. He mentions four great class- 
es : the Feloops, the Jaloofs or Yaloofs, the Fou- 
lahs, and the Mandingoes, among all of which, he 
says, the Mohammedan religion had made, and 
continued to make, considerable progress, though 
the most of them, the body of the people, both free 
and enslaved, persevered in maintaining the super- 
stitions of their ancestors, and were called by the 
Mohammedans, Kafirs, or infidels. 

The Feloops he describes as a wild and unsoci- 

* CofU, or Caffila, is the term used in North Africa t-j denote 
a company of travelling merchants, such as in Asia is called a 
caravan. 



22 THE YALOOFS. | 

able race, of a gloomy disposition, and having the 
reputation of never forgiving an injury. They 
are even said to transmit their quarrels, as deadly 
feuds, to posterity ; insomuch that a son considers 
it as incumbent upon him, from a just sense of fil- 
ial obligation, to become the avenger of his deceas- 
ed father's wrongs. If a man loses his life in one 
of those sudden quarrels which perpetually occur 
at their feasts, when the whole party is intoxicated 
with mead, his son, or the eldest of his sons (if he 
has more than one), endeavours to procure his fa- 
ther's sandals, which he wears once a year, on the 
anniversary of his father's death, until a fit bppor 
tunity offers of revenging his fate ; when the ob 
ject of his resentment seldom escapes his pursuit 
This fierce and unrelenting disposition is, however, 
counterbalanced by many good qualities : they dis- 
play the utmost gratitude and affection towards 
their benefactors ; and the fidelity with which they 
preserve whatever is intrusted to them is remark- 
able. " During the present war" (says Park, wri- 
ting in 1799) " they have more than once taken up 
arms to defend our merchant vessels from French 
privateers ; and English property, of considerable 
value, has frequently been left at Vintain for a long 
time, entirely under the care of the Feloops, who 
have uniformly manifested on such occasions the 
strictest honesty and punctuality. How greatly it 
is to be wished that the minds of a people, so de- 
termined and faithful, could be softened and civil- 
ized by the mild and benevolent spirit of Christi- 
anity !" 

The Jaloofs, or Yaloofs, are described by Park 
as an active, powerful and warlike race, differing 



THE FOULAHS. 23 

from the generality of Africans in having their 
noses less depressed, and their lips less protuber- 
ant. They are divided into several independent 
states, or kingdoms, which are frequently at war 
with their neighbours and with each other. In 
their manners, superstitions, and government, they 
have a greater resemblance to the Mandingoes than 
to any other nation ; they excel, however, the Man- 
dingoes in the manufacture of cotton cloth, spin- 
ning the wool to a finer thread, weaving it in a 
broader loom, and dying it of a better colour. 

The Foulahs, who, next to the Mandingoes, form 
the most considerable tribe of Africa, are described 
as possessing a tawny complexion, small, pleasing 
features, and soft, silky hair ; in the districts adja- 
cent to the Moorish territories, their complexion 
is more yellow than in the countries farther south. 
Their disposition is naturally mild and gentle ; but 
where the Mohammedan religion has been intro- 
duced, as in the Northern districts, the uncharita- 
ble maxims of the Koran are said to have rendered 
the Foulahs less hospitable to strangers, and more 
reserved in their behaviour than the Mandingoes. 
** They evidently consider all the negro natives as 
their inferiors ; and, when talking of different na- 
tions, always rank themselves among the white 
people." 

In the Foulah states in which Mohammedan- 
ism prevails, the laws of the Koran are the only ' 
rule of government. Yet the Mohammedan por- ' 
tion of the people are not very intolerant towards 
such of their countrymen as still retain their an- 
cient superstitions. " Religious persecution," says 
Park, " is not known among them, nor is it neces- 



24 THE FOULAHS. 

sary ; for the system of Mohammed is made to ex- 
tend itself by means abundantly more efficacious. 
By establishing small schools in the different towns, 
where many of the pagan as well as Mohammedan 
children are taught to read the Koran, and instruct- 
ed in the tenets of the prophet, the Mohammed- 
an priests fix a bias on the minds, and form the 
character of their young disciples, which no acci- 
dents of life can ever afterward remove or alter. 
Many of these little schools I visited in my prog- 
ress through the country, and observed with pleas- 
ure the great docility and submissive deportment 
of the children, and heartily wished they had bet- 
ter instructers and a purer religion." 

The Foulahs are principally occupied in the cul- 
tivation of the soil and in the rearing of cattle. 
Their industry in these pursuits is very remarka- 
ble, and they have introduced themselves into many 
neighbouring states as herdsmen and husbandmen, 
paying a tribute to the sovereign of the country 
for the lands which they hold. Even in the terri- 
tories of the Feloops and the Jaloofs, on the banks 
of the Gambia, the greater part of the corn is raised 
by them ; and in their own country of Bondou, 
which lies near the Senegal and the Moorish dis- 
tricts, they are opulent in a high degree, enjoying 
all the necessaries of life in the greatest profusion. 
Their cattle are managed with great skill, and ren- 
dered extremely gentle by kindness and familiarity. 
On the approach of night they are collected from 
the woods, and secured in folds called korrees, which 
are constructed in the neighbourhood of the differ- 
ent villages. In the middle of each korree is erect- 
ed a small hut, wherein one or two of the herds- 



THE MANDINGOES: 25 

men keep watch during the night, to prevent the 
cattle from being stolen, and to keep up the fires 
which are kindled round the korree, to frighten 
away the wild beasts. pw >^. 

The Mandingoes are the most considerably of i ^ 
the four nations here described ; they constituted, ' 
indeed, the bulk of the inhaj>itants in all those dis.^ 
tricts of Africa which Park visited on his first ex- 
pedition.* They are described by him as being, 
generally speaking, of a mild, sociable, and obli- 
ging disposition. The men are commonly above 
the middle size, well-shaped, strong, and capable 
of enduring great labour ; the women are good- 
natured, sprightly, and agreeable. The dress of 
both sexes is composed of cotton cloth of their 
own manufacture ; the men have a loose frock, not 
unlike a surplice, with drawers which reach half- 
way down the legs ; and they wear sandals on their 
4eet and white cotton caps on their heads. The 
women's dress consists of two pieces of cloth, each 
of which is about six feet long «nd three broad ; 
one of these they wrap round the waist, which, 
hanging down to the ankles, answers the purpose 
of a petticoat ; the other is thrown negligently over 
Khe bosom and shoulders. This account of their 
dress is, indeed, nearly applicable to the natives of 
all the different countries in this part of Africa ; a 

Eeculiar national mode being observable only in the 
eaddresses of the women. 
In all the Mandingo states near the Gambia the 
government is monarchical ; the king being assist- 
ed in affairs of importance by a council of the prin- 

* In which he advanced into ♦he interior upward of one thou- 
sand niiles in a direct line. 



26 THE MANDINGOES. 

cipal men, or elders, without whose advice he can- 
not make peace or war. In every considerable 
town there is a chief magistrate, called the alkaidy 
whose office is hereditary, and whose business it is 
to preserve order, to levy duties on travellers, and 
to preside at all conferences in the exercise of local 
jurisdiction and the administration of justice. The 
courts are composed of the elders of the town (of 
free condition), and are termed palavers ; their 
proceedings are conducted in the open air, on a 
large stage called the bentang, which answers the 
purpose of a public hall or town-house. As the 
negroes have no written language of their own, the 
general rule of decision is an appeal to ancient cus^ 
torn ; but where the Mohammedan religion pre- 
vails, the laws founded upon it have been intro- 
duced ; and if the Koran is not sufficiently explicit, 
recourse is had to a copious commentary called Al 
Sharra. 

" This frequency of appeal," says Park, " to writ- 
ten laws, with which the pagan nations are neces- 
sarily unacquainted, has given rise in their paiav- 
ers to (what I little expected to find in Africa) pro- 
fessional advocates or expounders of the law, who 
are allowed to appear and to plead for plaintiff or 
defendant, much in the same manner as counsel in 
the law-courts of Great Britain. They are Mo- 
hammedan negroes, who have made, or affect to 
have made, the laws of the prophet their peculiar 
study ; and, if I may judge from the harangues, 
which I frequently attended, I believe that in the 
forensic qualifications of procrastination and cavil, 
and the arts of confounding and perplexing a cause, 
they are not always surpassed by the ablest plead- 



MANDINGO JUDICATURE. 27 

ers in Europe. While I was in Pisania, a cause 
was heard which furnished the Mohammedan law. 
yers with an admirable opportunity of displaying 
their professional dexterity. The case was this : 
an ass, belonging to a Serawoolli negro (a native of 
an interior country, near the river Senegal), had 
broke into a field of corn belonging to one of the 
Mandingo inhabitants, and destroyed great part 
of it. The Mandingo, having caught the animal 
in his field, immediately drew his knife and cut its 
throat. The Serawoolli thereupon called a, palaver 
(or, in European terms, brought an action), to re- 
cover damages for the loss of his beast, on which 
he set a high value. The defendant confessed he 
had killed the ass, but pleaded a set-off, insisting 
that the loss he had sustained by the ravage in 
his corn was equal to the sum demanded for the 
animal. To ascertain this fact was the point at 
issue ; and the learned advocates contrived to puz- 
zle the cause in such a manner, that, after a hear- 
ing of three days, the cause broke up without com- 
ing to any determination upon it ; and a second 
palaver was, I suppose, thought necessary.'* 
C 



28 JOURNEY INTO THE INTEKlOfi. 



CHAPTER III. 

Departure of Park from Pisania.— His Eqaipment and Party. 
— His Arrival at Jindey.— Mandingo Story-teller. — Park's in 
voluntary Present to the King of Walli. — His Arrival at Medi- 
na, the Capital of Woolli.— His Interviews with the King. — 
Saphies, or Charms of the Negroes. — Description of Mumbo 
Jumbo. — Park's Departure from the Territory of WooUi. 

[1795.] 

On the 2d of December, 1795, Park quitted Pi. 
sania on his journey into the interior. He had en- 
gaged as an interpreter a negro named Johnson, 
who, born in this part of Africa, had been convey- 
ed in his youth as a slave to Jamaica, there made 
free, and then taken by his master to England, 
whence, after a residence of many years, he had 
at length found his way back to his native country. 
Dr. Laidley provided him also with a negro boy, 
named Demba ; a sprightly youth, to whom was 
held out by the doctor, as an encouragement, the 
promise of freedom on his return, in the event of a 
fovourable report of his fidelity and services. For 
his own conveyance Park had purchased a small 
but very hardy and spirited horse, which cost hin? 
" to the value of IL \Qs. ;" his attendants were 
each furnished with an ass, which is the usual beasJ 
of burden in all the negro territories. His bag 
gage was light, consisting chiefly of two days' pro 
visions, some beads, amber, and tobacco, for the 
purchase of a fresh supply, as he proceeded ; of a 
few changes of linen and other necessary apparel. 



JOURNEY mXO THE INTERIOR. 29 

an umbrella, a pocket sextant, a magnetic compass, 
two fowling-pieces, and two pairs of pistols. His 
party was increased by the addition of four individ- 
uals who were journeying into the interior, and who 
offered their services as far as they should respect- 
ively proceed ; these were a man named Madiboo, 
who was travelling to the kingdom of Bambarra, 
two Slatees, or native merchants, who were going 
to Bondou, and a negro named Tami, who had been 
employed for some years by Dr. Laidley as a 
blacksmith, and who was returning to his native 
country, Kasson, with the savings of his labours. 
These four men travelled on foot, driving their ass- 
es before them ; they were all Mohammedans, and 
they had all been taught to regard Park with great 
respect. The three white residents of Pisania— 
Dr. Laidley, and the Messrs. Ainsley — with a num- 
ber of their domestics, determined to acco'mpany 
the travellers for a short distance, " and I believe," 
says Park, '*• they secretly thought they should nev- 
er see me afterward."* 

The first day's journey ended at Jindey. In the 
evening Park and his friends walked out to see an 
adjoining village, belonging to a Slatee named Je- 
mafoo Mamadoo, the richest of all the Gambia tra- 
ders ; who thought so highly of the honour of the 
visit as to present them with a fine bullock. The 
animal was immediately killed, and a part of it 
dressed for supper ; and while this repast was 
being prepared, a Mandingo related some diverting 
stories, " in listening to which and smoking tobac- 

* The reader will find a general map of Africa in Discovery 
and Adventures in Africa No. 16, Harpers' Family and School 
District Libraries. 



MANDINGO STORY-TELLER. 31 

CO," says Park, " we spent three hours." He de- 
scribes these stories as bearing some resemblance 
to those in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, 
but as being, in general, of a more ludicrous cast ; 
an abridgment of one given by him is amusing. 

" Many years ago," said the relator, " the peo- 
ple of Doomasansa" (a town on the Gambia) 
" were much annoyed by a lion, that came every 
night, and took away some of their cattle. By 
continuing his depredations, the people were at 
length so much enraged, that a party of them re- 
solved to go and hunt the monster. They accord- 
ingly proceeded in search for the common enemy, 
whom they found concealed in a thicket, and im- 
mediately firing at him, were lucky enough to 
w^ound him in such a manner that, in springing 
from the thicket towards the people, he fell down 
among the grass, and was unable to rise. The 
animal, however, manifested such appearance of 
vigour, that nobody cared to approach him singly, 
and a consultation was held concerning the proper- 
est means of taking him alive ; a circumstance, it 
was said, which, while it furnished undeniable proof 
of their prowess, w^ould turn out to great advan- 
tage, it being resolved to convey him to the coast, 
and sell him to the Europeans. While some per- 
son proposed one plan, and some another, an old 
man offered a scheme ; this was, to strip the roof 
of a house of its thatch, and to carry the bamboo 
frame" (the pieces of which are well secured to- 
gether by thongs) " and throw it over the lion. If, 
in approaching him, he should attempt to spring 
upon them, they had nothing to do but to let down 
this roof upon themselves, and fire at the lion 
through the rafters. 



32 SEPARATION FROM FRIENDS. 

" This proposition was approved and adopted. 
The thatch was taken from the roof of a hut, and 
the lion-hunters, supporting the fabric, marched 
courageously to the field of battle ; each person 
carrying a gun in one hand, and bearing his share 
of the roof on the opposite shoulder ; in this man- 
ner they approached the enemy ; but the beast had 
by this time recovered his strength, and such was 
the fierceness of his countenance, that the hunters, 
instead of proceeding any farther, thought it pru- 
dent to provide for their own safety by covering 
themselves with the roof. Unfortunately, the lion 
was too nimble for them ; for, making a spring 
while the house was letting down, both the beast 
and his pursuers were caught in the same cage, 
and the lion devoured them at his leisure, to the 
astonishment and mortification of the people of 
Doomasansa, at which place it is dangerous, even 
at this day, to tell the story, for it is become the 
subject of laughter and derision in the neighbour- 
ing countries, and nothing will enrage an inhabi- 
tant of that town so much as desiring him to catch 
a lion aUve." 

On the following day. Park separated from the 
kind friends and countrymen whose society had 
cheered him for the last five months. About one 
o'clock in the afternoon he took his leave of Dr. 
Laidley and the Messrs. Ainsley, and rode slowly 
into the woods. " I had now," he says, " before me 
a boundless forest, and a country, the inhabitants 
of which were strangers to civilized life, and to 
most of whom a white man was the object of curi- 
osity or plunder. I reflected that I had parted from 
the last European I might probably behold, and 



INVOLUNTARY PRESENT. 33 

perhaps quitted for ever the comforts of Christian 
society. Thoughts like these would necessarily- 
cast a gloom over the mind, and I rode musing 
along for about three miles, when I was awakened 
from my revery by a body of people, who came 
running up and stopped the asses, giving me to un- 
derstand that I must go with them to Peckaba, to 
present myself to the King of Walli, or pay cus- 
toms to them." Park endeavoured to make them 
comprehend, that as the object of his journey was 
not traffic, he ought not to be subjected to a tax, 
as were the Slatees, and other merchants travelling 
for gain ; but he reasoned to no purpose. He was 
told that it was usual for travellers of all descrip. 
tions to make a present to the King of Walli, and 
that, without doing so, he could not be permitted to 
proceed. As numbers were against him. Park 
thought it prudent to comply with their demands ; 
and having presented them with four bars* of to- 
bacco for the king's use, he was permitted to con- 
tinue his journey. 

* This standard of value is thus explained by Park, in speak- 
ing of the trade carried on by the Africans with the natives ot 
Christendom. " In their early intercourse with Europeans, the 
article that attracted most notice was iron. Its utility in form- 
ing the instruments of war and husbandry made it preferable to 
all others ; and iron soon became the measure by which the 
value of all other commodities was ascertained. Thus a cer- 
tain quantity of goods, of whatever denomination, appearing to 
be equal in value to a bar of iron, constituted, in the trader's 
phraseology, a bar of that particular merchandise. Twenty 
leaves of tobacco, for instance, were considered as a bar of to- 
bacco ; and a gallon of spirits (or, rather, half spirits and half 
water) as a 6ar of rum ; a bar of one commodity being reckoned 
equal in value to the bar of another commodity." To prevent, 
however, continual fluctuations, " greater precision has been 
found necessary ; and at this time the current value of a single 
bar of any kind is fixed hy the whites at two shillings sterling." 



34 VISIT TO THE KING OF WOOLLI. • 

On the morning of the 4th of December Park 
quitted the territory of WaUi, and entering the do- 
minions of the King of Woolli, paid a custom's du- 
ty to one of his majesty's officers. At noon on the 
5th he reached Medina, the capital of this Man- 
dingo state ; he describes it as a place of consider- 
able extent, containing from eight hundred to one 
thousand houses, and fortified in the common Af- 
rican manner, by a high wall of clay and an out- 
ward fence of pointed stakes and prickly bushes. 
Here he paid his respects to the king, Jatta ; a 
venerable old man, of whom a favourable account 
had been given by Major Houghton ; and requested 
permission to pass through the territory of Woolli 
to Bondou. In answer to this request, his majes- 
ty, who was seated upon a mat before the door of 
his hut, very graciously replied, that he not only 
granted the permission, but would offer up prayers 
for his visiter's safety ; and, moreover, he promis- 
ed to furnish a guide for the travellers on the mor- 
row. In the evening Park sent the king an order 
on Dr. Laidley for three gallons of rum, and re- 
ceived in return a great store of provisions. 

Early on the following morning Park paid a sec- 
ond visit to the king, to learn if the guide was 
ready. " I found his majesty," he says, " sitting 
upon a bullock's hide, warming himself before a 
large fire ; for the Africans are sensible of the 
smallest variation in the temperature of the air, 
and frequently complain of cold when a Europe- 
an is oppressed with heat. He received me with 
a benevolent countenance, and tenderly entreated 
me to desist from my purpose of travelling into the 
interior ; telling me that Major Houghton had been 



ARRIVAL AT KONJOUR. 35 

killed in his route, and that, if I followed his foot- 
steps, I should probably meet with his fate. He said 
that I must not judge of the people of the eastern 
country by those of WooUi ; that the latter were 
acquainted with the white men, and respected them ; 
whereas the people of the East had never seen a 
white man, and would certainly destroy me. I 
thanked the king for his affectionate solicitude, but 
told him that I had considered the matter, and was 
determined, notwithstanding all dangers, to proceed. 
The king shook his head, but desisted from farther 
persuasion, and told me the guide should be ready 
in the afternoon." 

About two o'clock the guide appearing, Park 
took his last farewell of the " good old king," and 
set forward. He passed the night at the small vil- 
lage of Konjour, where he purchased a fine sheep 
for some beadsV a^^d had part of it dressed for sup- 
per. After the repast a curious dispute arose be- 
tween one of the Serawoollis, who had acted the part 
of butcher, and the interpreter Johnson, concerning 
their respective claims to the horns as a perquisite ; 
Park settled the matter by giving a horn to each of 
them, and ascertained, upon inquiry, that the ea- 
gerness of the competitors for the prize arose from 
the high value which are attached to these horns, 
as being easily convertible into portable sheaths or 
cases, for containing and keeping secure certain 
charms or amulets, called saphies, which the ne- 
groes constantly wear about them. " These saph- 
ies are prayers, or, rather, sentences from the Ko- 
ran, which the Mohammedan priests write on scraps 
of paper, and sell to the simple natives, who con- 
sider them to possess very extraordinary virtues. 



36 SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NEGROES, 

Some of the negroes wear them to guard them- 
selves against the bite of certain snakes or alliga- 
tors ; and on this occasion the saphie is commonly 
enclosed in a snake's or alligator's skin, and tied 
round the ankle. Others have recourse to them in 
lime of war, to protect their persons against hos- 
tile weapons ; but the common use to which these 
amulets are applied, is to prevent or cure bodily 
diseases ; to preserve them from hunger and thirst, 
and generally to conciliate the favour of superior 
powers, under all the circumstances and occurren- 
ces of life." 

" In this case," adds Park, " it is impossible not 
to admire the wonderful contagion of superstition ; 
for, notwithstanding that the majority of the ne- 
groes are pagans, and absolutely reject the doc- 
trines of Mohammed, I did not meet with a man, 
whether a bushreen or kafir,* who was not fully 
persuaded of the powerful efficacy of these amulets. 
The truth is, that all the natives of this part of Af- 
rica consider the art of writing as bordering on 
magic ; and it is not in the doctrines of the proph- 
et, but in the arts of the magician that their con- 
fidence is placed." 

On the 7th Park quitted Konjour, and on the 
8th, about noon, reached the town of Kolor, near 
the entrance into which he observed hanging upon 
a tree a sort of masquerade habit, made of the bark 
of trees, which he learned belonged to Mumbo Jum- 
bo. This is a strange bugbear, common to all the 
Mandingo towns, and much employed by the pagar. 
natives in keeping their women in subjection ; for, 

* The Mohammedan negroes are called ImshreenSf and the 
pagans kafirs, infidels, or unbelievers. 



MUMBO JUMBO. 37 

as the kafirs are not restricted in the number of 
their wives, every one marries as many as he can 
conveniently maintain ; and as it frequently happens 
that the ladies disagree among themselves, family 
quarrels sometimes rise to such a height, that the 
authority of the husband can no longer preserve 
peace in his household. In such cases the inter- 
position of Mumbo Jumbo is called in, and is al- 
ways decisive. 

" This strange minister of justice (who is sup- 
posed to be either the husband himself, or some 
person instructed by him), disguised in the dress 
that has been mentioned, and armed with the rod 
of public authority, announces his coming (when- 
ever his services are required) by loud and dismal 
screams in the woods near the town. He begins 
his pantomime at the approach of night ; and as 
soon as it is dark he enters the town and proceeds 
to the bentang, at which all the inhabitants imme- 
diately assemble. 

" It may be easily supposed that this exhibition 
fe not much relished by the women ; for, as the 
person in disguise is entirely unknown to them, 
every married female suspects that the visit may 
possibly be intended for herself; but they dare not 
refuse to appear when they are summoned ; and the 
ceremony commences with songs and dances, which 
continue till midnight, about which time Mumbo 
fixes on the offender. This unfortunate victim be. 
ing thereupon immediately seized, is stripped na- 
ked, tied to a post, and severely scourged with 
Mumbo's rod, amid the shouts and derision of the 
whole assembly ; and it is remarkable, that the 
rest of the women are the loudest in their excla- 



38 PARK REACHES KOOJAR, 

mations on this occasion against their unhappy sis- 
ter. Daylight puts an end to this indecent and un- 
manly revel."* 

On the 11th, about midday, the party reached 
Koojar, the frontier town of Woolli, towards the 
state of Bondou, from which it is separated by an 
intervening wilderness of two days' journey. Here 
Park engaged three negro elephant-hunters to serve 
him as guides and water-carriers across that deso- 
late tract, paying them each three bars in advance. 
In the evening the inhabitants of Koojar invited 
him to see a neohering, or wrestling match at the 
bentang, an exhibition very common in all the 
Mandingo countries ; and they afterward gratified 
him with a dance, in which many performers were 
engaged, their motions being regulated by the sound 
of a drum. In the course of the evening, our trav- 
eller was presented, by ^ay of refreshment, with a 
liquor which tasted so much hke the beer of his 
native country — " and very good beer too" — as to 
induce him to inquire into its composition ; when 
he learned, with some degree of surprise, that it was 
actually made from corn which had been previously 
malted, much in the same manner as barley is in 
England, the substitute for hops being a root which 
yields a grateful bitter. 

As the sun rose on the 12th, Park entered the 

* It is among the worst features of barbarism, that, in such 
a state of society, the condition of woman is uniformly degra- 
ded and miserable. It is only as civilization advances that she 
begins to receive that deference and consideration which are 
so justly her due. But it is, above all, to the pure and enno- 
bhng influences of Christianity that she is indebted for her ele- 
vation from a state of servitude and debasement, to the station 
which properly belongs to her, as the friend, the companion, 
and the equal of man.— Am. Ed. 



JOURNEY ACROSS THE WILDERNESS. 39 

wilderness ; only two of his water-bearers accom- 
panied him, the third having absconded with the 
money which he had received in advance. He re- 
marks in his narrative, in taking leave of Woolli, 
that he was well received by the natives ; the fa- 
tigues of the day were generally alleviated by a 
hearty welcome at night ; and although the African 
niode of living was at first unpleasant to him, yet 
he found, at length, that custom surmounted trifling 
inconveniences, and made everything palatable and 
easy. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Park's Journey across the Wilderness into Bondou. — Negro 
Method of treating refractory Asses. — Fishery on the River 
Faleme.— Park's Arrival at the Capital of Bondou.— His In- 
terviews with the King. — The Royal Dwelling.— The King's 
Admiration of Park's new blue Coat, and the Consequences. 
— Park's Interview with the King's Wives. — His Departure 
from Bondou, and Journey into Kajaaga. — The SerawooUis. 
— Park's [U-treatment at Joag. — His Distresses. — Humanity 
of a Female Slave. — Park's Journey from Kajaaga into Kas- 
6on. 

[1795- J 796.] 

Park's first day's journey across the wilderness 
between Woolli and Bondou was a very long and 
fatiguing one. His attendants were so extremely 
apprehensive of banditti, that, instead of resting for 
the night at the first watering-place, he pushed on 
for another ; this he reached at eight o'clock 



40 hefractory asses. 

when a large fire was kindled, and the party laid 
down, surrounded by their cattle, on the bare 
ground, more than a gunshot from any bush, the 
negroes agreeing to keep, watch by turns, to pre- 
vent surprise. At daylight on the following morn- 
ing the journey was resumed ; and about eleven 
o'clock they reached Tallika, the first town of the 
Foulah kingdom of Bondou. 

On the morrow, being the 14th of December, 
Park left Tallika, in company with the officer who 
resided there to watch the arrival of caravans, and 
whom he had engaged for five bars to conduct him 
to the capital, Fatteconda. This journey occupied 
seven days, in the course of which few incidents 
occurred worthy of notice. At daybreak on the 
15th, the two Serawoolli slave-merchants, who had 
accompanied Park from Pisania, took leave of him, 
with many prayers for his safety ; in the evening 
he reached a town where one of his remaining 
companions, the blacksmith, had some relations, 
and there he rested two days. 

In the course of the journey to Fatteconda Park 
noticed a curious method adopted by the negroes 
for making a refractory ass tractable. They cut 
a forked stick, and, putting the forked part into the 
ass's mouth like the bit of a bridle, tied the two 
smaller parts together above his head, leaving the 
lower part of the stick of sufficient length to strike 
against the ground if the ass should attempt to put 
his head down. After this the ass walked quietly 
along, and gravely enough, taking care, after some 
practice, to hold his head sufficiently high to pre- 
vent the stones or roots of trees from striking 
against the end of the stick, which, experience 



NATIVE nsHERr. 41 

had taught him, would give a severe shock to his 
teeth. This contrivance had a ludicrous appear- 
ance, but was said to be constantly adopted by the 
Slatees, and always to prove effectual. 

On the banks of the Faleme, one of the princi- 
pal affluents of the river Senegal, our traveller had 
an opportunity of noticing the modes of fishing 
practised by the natives. The large fish were ta- 
ken in long baskets made of split cane, and placed 
in a strong current, which was created by walls of 
stone built across the stream ; certain open places 
being left, through which the water rushed with 
great force. Some of these baskets were more 
than twenty feet long, and, when once the fish had 
entered one of them, the force of the stream pre- 
vented it from returning. The small fish were ta- 
ken in great numbers in hand-nets, which the na- 
tives weave of cotton, and use with great dexteri- 
ty. The fish last mentioned are about the size of 
sprats, and are prepared for sale in different ways ; 
the most common is by pounding them entire, as 
they come from the stream, in a wooden mortar, 
and exposing them to dry in the sun, in large lumps, 
like sugar-loaves. " It may be supposed," says 
Park, "that the smell is not very agreeable; but 
in the Moorish countries to the north of Senegal, 
where fish is scarcely known, this preparation is 
esteemed as a luxury, and sold to considerable ad- 
vantage. The manner of using it by the natives 
is by dissolving a piece of this black loaf in boil- 
ing water, and mixing it with their kouskous.^^* „>#' 

* This is a sort of pudding or preparation of flour. It is 
made by first moistening the flour with water, and then stirring 
or shaking it about in a larg^ calabash or gourd, till it adhere* 



42 ARRIVAL AT BONDOU, 

On the 21st of December, about noon, Park en- 
tered Fattecoada, the capital of Bondou. As there 
are no houses of pubUc entertainment in Africa, 
it is customary for strangers arriving at a town 
^to stand at the bentang, or some other place of 
jj/^^ public resort, till they are invited to a lodging 
by some of the inhabitants. Our travellers fol- 
lowed the usual course, and in a short time re- 
ceived an invitation to the house of a respectable 
Slatee. An hour had scarcely elapsed before a 
messenger came to Park from the king, desiring to 
see him immediately if he were not too much fa 
tigued. 

" I took my interpreter with me," says Park, 
" and followed the messenger till we got quite 
out of the town, and crossed some cornfields ; 
when, suspecting some trick, I stopped, and asked 
the guide whither he was going ; upon which he 
pointed to a man sitting under a tree at some little 
distance, and told me that the king frequently gave 
audience in that retired m.anner, in order to avoid 
a crowd of people ; and that nobody but myself 
and my interpreter must approach him. When I 
advanced, the king desired me to come and sit by 
him on the mat ; and, after hearing my story, on 
which he made no observations, he asked if I wish- 
ed to purchase any slaves or gold ; being answer- 
together in small granules resembling sago. It is then put into 
an earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated with small holes ; 
and this pot bemg placed upon another, the two vessels are lu- 
ted together and placed upon the fire. In the lower vessel is 
commonly some animal food and water, the steam or vapour of 
wiiich ascends through the perforations in the bottom of the up- 
per vessel, and softens and prepares the kouskous, which is very 
much esteemed. 



VISITS THE KING OF BONDOU. 43 

ed in the negative, he seemed rather surprised ; but 
desired me to come to him in the evening, and he 
would give me some provisions." 

The behaviour of King Almami, as the monarch 
of Bondou was called, was civil ; but Park had 
heard that his majesty had been instrumental in 
the robbery of Major Houghton, and therefore felt 
some distrust. As, how^ever, he was now entirely 
in the king's power, he thought it prudent, on paying 
his evening visit, to smooth the way by a present ; 
and he accordingly took with him a canister of gun- 
^powd^ some amber, some tobacco, and his urn- 
breUa- Deeming it certain that his bundles would 
be searched, he concealed a few articles in the roof 
of the hut in which he lodged, and, by an unfortu- 
nate impulse of precaution, put on his new blue 
coat " in order to preserve it." He then repaired 
to the king's dwelling. 

" All the houses," he says, *' belonging to the 
king and his family are surrounded by a lofty 
mud wall, which converts the whole into a kind of 
citadel. The interior is subdivided into different 
courts. At the first place of entrance I observed 
a man standing with a musket on his shoulder ; 
and I found the way to the "presence very intricate, 
leading through many passages, with sentinels pla- 
ced at the different doors. When we came to the 
<5ntrance of the court in which the king resides, 
both my guide and interpreter, according to cus- 
tom, took off their sandals ; and the former pro- 
nounced the king's name aloud, repeating it till he 
was answered from within. We found the mon- 
arch sitting on a mat, and two attendants with him. 
I repeated what I had before told him concerning 
D 



^4 VISITS THE KING OF BONDOU. 

the object of my journey, and my reasons for pass- 
ing through his country. He seemed, however, 
but half satisfied. The notion of traveUing for 
curiosity was quite new to him. He thought it 
impossible, he said, that any man in his senses 
would undertake so dangerous a journey, merely to 
look at the country and its inhabitants ; however, 
when I offered to show him the contents of my 
portmanteau, and everything belonging to me, he 
was convinced ; and it was evident that his suspi- 
cion had arisen from a belief that every white man 
must of necessity be a trader. When I had de- 
livered my presents, he seemed well pleased, and 
was particularly dehghted with the umbrella, which 
he repeatedly furled and unfurled, to the great ad- 
miration of himself and his two attendants, who 
could not for some time comprehend the use of this 
wonderful machine. After this I was about to take 
my leave, when the king, desiring me to stop a 
while, began a long preamble in favour of the 
whites ; extoUing their immense wealth and good 
dispositions. He next proceeded to a eulogium on 
my blue coat, of which the yellow buttons seemed 
particularly to catch his fancy ; and he concluded 
by entreating me to present him with it, assuring 
me, for my consolation under the loss of it, that he 
would wear it on all public occasions, and inform 
every one who saw it of my great liberality to- 
wards him. The request of an African prince, in 
his own dominions, particularly when made to a 
stranger, comes little short of a command. It is 
only a way of obtaining by gentle means what he 
can, if he pleases, obtain by force ; and as it was 
against my interest to offend him by a refusal, I 



THE king's wives, 45 

very quietly took off my coat, the only good one 
in my possession, and laid it at his feet." 

On the following day Park paid another visit to 
the king, and was then requested to visit the king's 
wives, who were very anxious to see him.. As 
soon as our traveller entered the court appropriated 
to the ladies, the whole body surrounded him, some 
begging for physic, some for amber, and all of them 
desirous of trying that great African specific hlood- 
letting. There were ten or twelve in number, most 
of them young and handsome, and wearing on their 
heads ornaments of gold and beads of amber. 
" They rallied me," says Park, " with a good deal 
of gayety on different subjects, particularly upon 
the whiteness of my skin, and the prominency of 
my nose. They insisted that both were artificial. 
The first, they said, was produced when I was an 
infant, by dipping me in milk ; and they insisted 
that my nose had been pinched every day till it 
had acquired its present unsightly and unnatural 
conformation. On my part, without disputing my 
own deformity, I paid them many compliments on 
African beauty. I praised the glossy jet of their 
skins, and the lovely depression of their noses ; 
but they said that battery (or, as they emphati- 
cally termed it, honey -mouth) was not esteemed in 
Bondou. In return, however, for my company or 
compliments (to which, by-the-way, they seemed 
not so insensible as they afi?ected to be), they pre- 
sented me with a jar of honey and some fish, which 
were sent to my lodging ; and I was desired to 
come again to the king a little before sunset." 

On paying this last visit to the king. Park re- 
ceived from his majesty five drachms of gold, and 



46 JOURNEY TO KAJAAGA. 

the welcome intelligence that he was at liberty to 
depart ; a polite intimation was added, that, though 
it was customary to examine the baggage of trav- 
ellers, the ceremony would be dispensed with in the 
present case. x\ccordingly, on the morning of the 
23d, he left Fatteconda ; and, approaching the 
boundary between Bondou and the kingdom of Ka- 
jaaga, through which his route lay next, he found 
that it would be necessary to continue his journey 
during the night, as this border district was a dan- 
gerous resting-place for travellers. Hiring two 
guides, therefore, at a small village where he rest- 
ed, he set out with his party as soon as the people 
of the place were gone to sleep, the moon shining 
bright. " The stillness of the air," says Park, 
" the howling of the wild beasts, and the deep soli- 
tude of the forest, made the scene solemn and im- 
pressive. Not a word was uttered by any of us 
but in a whisper ; all were attentive, and every 
one anxious to show his sagacity, by pointing out 
to me the wolves and hysenas as they glided like 
shadows from one thicket to another." Towards 
morning they rested at a small village, and on the 
afternoon of the 24th arrived at Joag, the frontier 
town of the kingdom of Kajaaga. 

The inhabitants of Kajaaga are Sera woollies ; a 
race whose characteristic is an indefatigable ac- 
tivity in acquiring wealth by the pursuit of trade ; 
they formerly carried on a great commerce with 
the French, by whom Kajaaga was called Gallam. 
When a Serawoolli merchant returns home from a 
trading expedition, the neighbours immediately as- 
semble to congratulate him upon his arrival. On 
these occasions the traveller displays his wealth 



THE SERAWOOLLIES. 47 

and liberality by making a few presents to his 
friends ; but if he has been unsuccessful, his levee 
is soon over ; and every one looks upon him as a 
man of no understanding, who could perform a long 
journey, and (as they express it) hring hack nothing 
hut the hair upon his head. 

At Joag Park took up his residence at the house 
of the Dooty,* who was a rigid Mohammedan, but 
distinguished for his hospitality. In the evening 
his two companions — the blacksmith and the bush- 
reen Madiboo, who had journeyed with him from 
Gambia — went to visit a neighbouring town ; and 
our traveller himself, after having witnessed the 
sports of the inhabitants by their invitation, betook 
himself to rest. In the middle of the night, or, 
rather, about two o'clock in the morning, a number 
of horsemen came into the town, and, having awa- 
kened the Dooty, talked to him for some time in the 
Serawoolli tongue ; after which they dismounted 
and went to the bentang, on which Park had made 
his bed. One of them, thinking that Park was 
asleep, attempted to steal the musket that lay by 
him on the mat ; but, finding that he could not ef- 
feet his purpose undiscovered, he desisted. The 
whole party then sat down till daylight. 

" I could now easily perceive," says Park, " by 
the countenance of my interpreter, Johnson, that 
something very unpleasant was in agitation. I 
was likewise surprised to see Madiboo and the 
blac^seait-h so soon returned. On inquiring the 
reason, Madiboo informed me, that, as they were 
dancing at Dramanet, ten horsemen belonging to 

* The name for the chief magistrate ; it is equivalent to AU 
kaid, but is used only in the interior countries. 



48 park's ill-treatment at joag. 

Batcheri, kiag of the country, with his second son 
at their head, had arrived there, inquiring if the 
white man had passed ; and, on being told that I 
was at Joag, they rode off without stopping. Mad- 
iboo added, that, on hearing this, he and the black- 
smith hastened back to give me notice of their 
coming. While I was listening to this narrative, 
the ten horsemen mentioned by Madiboo arrived, 
and, coming to the bentang, dismounted, and seated 
themselves with those who had come before ; the 
whole, being about twenty in number, forming a 
circle round me, and each man holding his musket 
in his hand. I took this opportunity to obseWe to 
my landlord, that, as I did not understand the Se- 
rawoolli tongue, I hoped, whatever the men had to 
say, they would speak in Mandingo. To this they 
agreed ; and a short man, loaded w^ith a remarka- 
ble number of saphies, opened the business in a 
very long harangue, informing me that I had en- 
tered the king's town without first having paid the 
duties, or giving any present to the king, and that, 
according to the laws of the country, my people, 
cattle, and baggage were forfeited. He added, 
that he had received orders from the king to cqn- 
duct me to Maana, the place of his residence, and 
if I refused to come with them, their orders were 
to bring me by force ; upon his saying which, all 
of them rose up and asked me if I was ready. It 
would have been equally vain and imprudent in me 
to have resisted or irritated such a body of men 
I therefore affected to comply with their commands, 
and begged them only to stop a little until I had 
given my horse a feed of corn, and settled matters 
wi^h my landlori." 



park's distress. 49 

His landlord, on being consulted, was decidedly 
of opinion tliat Park ought not to go to the king, 
as he would run considerable risk of being plunder- 
ed by his majesty. Park, therefore, thought it 
best to conciliate his unwelcome visiters ; so, plead- 
ing the excuse of ignorance for his violation of the 
laws, he offered, as a present for their sovereign, 
the fiv^e drachms of gold which the King of Bondou 
had given him. The men accepted this, but in- 
sisted on examining his baggage ; and, after wran- 
gling over the bundles with their unfortunate owner 
till sunset, they departed, having robbed him of half 
his goods. 

Park was now in a condition of great perplex- 
ity. His attendants were much dispirited ; Mad- 
iboo begged him to turn back ; Johnson laughed at 
the thought of proceeding without money, and the 
poor blacksmith, who had learned that a war was 
upon the point of breaking out between Kasson and>* 
Kajaaga, was afraid to be seen, or even to speak; 
lest he should be recognised for a native of the 
former state, detained, and perhaps sold as a slave. 
The party passed the night by the side of a dim 
fire, after having partaken of a very indifferent 
supper. 

On the following day they resolved to " combat 
hunger ;" for Park knew that if he produced any 
beads or amber to purchase provisions with, jthe 
king would immediately hear of it, and probably 
strip him of the few effects which he had been able 
to conceal. In this forlorn state his wants were 
unexpectedly relieved in a manner which afforded 
him peculiar satisfaction. 

" Towards evening," he says, " as I was sitting 



50 HUMAIS^ITY OF A FEMALE SLAVE. 

upon the bentang, chewing straws, an old female 
slave, passing by with a basket upon her head, ask- 
ed me if 1 had got my dinner. As I thought she 
only laughed, I gave her no answer ; but my boy, 
who was sitting close by, answered for me, and 
told her that the king's people had robbed me of all 
my money. On hearing this, the good old wonian, 
with a look of unaffected benevolence, immediately 
took the basket from her head, and showing me 
that it contained ground-nuts, asked me if 1 could 
eat them ; being answered in the affirmative, she 
presented me with a few handfuls, and walked away 
before I had time to thank her for this seasonable 
supply. This trifling circumstance gave me pecu- 
liar satisfaction. I reflected with pleasure on the 
conduct of this poor untutored slave, who, without 
examining into my character or circumstances, lis- 
tened imphcitly to the dictates of her own heart. 
Experience had taught her that hunger was pain- 
ful, and her own distresses made her commiserate 
those of others." 

Shortly after the good old woman had left him, 
he received a visit from Demba Sego, a nephew ojf 
the King of Kasson, who was returning to his un- 
cle's dominions from an ineffectual embassy to set- 
tle the disputes which had arisen with the King of 
Kajaaga. On learning from Park his situation and 
distresses, this young man frankly offered to guide 
and protect him to Kasson, provided he would set 
out the next morning. The offer was gratefully 
accepted, and at daylight on the morrow, being the 
27th of December, the whole party set out. 

On the following day they crossed the river Sen- 
egal and entered the territory of Kasson. The 



ACClDEiXT IN THE RIVER SEi\^EGAL. 51 

task of transporting the baggage, and swimming 
the horses and asses over the stream, was a source 
of much delay ; Park himself met with an accident 
which might have been attended with serious con- 
sequences. He and his protector, Demba Sego, 
had embarked in the j^assagej^^bpatj^ a frail canoe, 
which the least motion was hkely to overset. The 
king's nephew thought this a proper time to have 
a peep into a tin box of Park's, which stood on the 
forepart of the canoe, and, in stretching out his 
hand for it, he unfortunately destroyed the equilib- 
rium, and upset the boat. As they had not ad- 
vanced far jfrom the shore, they got back without 
much difficulty ; and then, wringing the water 
from their clothes, started afresh, and were soon 
safely landed in Kasson. 



CHAPTER V. 

Park's xA.rrival in Kasson.— His Detention at Teesee. — Conver 
sion of all the inhabitants to Mohammedanism. — Rapacity ol 
the Governor. — Park's Arrival at Jumbo.— Reception of a Na- 
tive who accompanied him by the Townspeople. — Park's 
Journey to Kooniakary. — His Audience of the King of Kas- 
son. — Obstacles to his Progress. — His Journey into Kaarta. — 
An amusing Adventure. — Park's Arrival at Kemmoo, the 
Capital of Kaarta. — His Resolution to proceed through the 
Moorish Kingdom of Ludamar. 

[1796.] 

Scarcely had Mungo Park set foot upon the ter- 
ritory of Kasson, when his youthful protector, Dem- 
ba Sego, expressed a hope that his services would 
E 



52 park's detention at teesee. 

be duly considered, and rewarded by a handsonie 
present. To a man in distress, just escaped from 
the hands of plunderers, this was rather an unex- 
pected proposition ; and Park very naturally be- 
gan to think that he had not much improved his con- 
dition by crossing the water. But as it was use- 
less to complain, he gave the king's nephew seven 
bars of amber and some tobacco out of his scanty 
stock. 

On the evening of December the 29th they 
reached Teesee, a large unwalled town, of which 
Demba Sego's father, Tiggity Sego, brother to the 
King of Kasson, was governor. On the following 
morning Park was introduced to the old man, from 
whom he learned that it would be necessary for him 
to go to Kooniakary, and pay his respects to the sov- 
ereign. He was, however, detained at Teesee 
some time, through the bad faith of Demba Sego, 
who borrowed his horse for three days and kept it 
eight. During his detention occurred a curious 
incident, which will remind the reader of the meas- 
ures adopted for the propagation of the Moham- 
medan religion in earlier years. 
^" On the 5th of January, an embassy of ten peo- 
ple belonging to Almami Abdulkader, king of Foo- 
ta Torra, a country to the west of Bondou, arrived 
at Teesee, and desiring Tiggity Sego to call an as- 
sembly of the inhabitants, announced publicly their 
king's determination to this effect : * That, unless 
the people of Kasson would embrace the Moham- 
medan religion, and evince their conversion by 
saying eleven public prayers, he' (the King of Foo- 
ta Torra) ' could not possibly stand neuter in the 
present contest, but would certainly join his arms 



RAPACITV OF TFE GOYERKOR. 53 

to those of Kajaaga.' A message of this nature, 
from so powerful a prince, could not fail to create 
great alarm ; and the inhabitants of Teesee, after 
a long consultation, agreed to conform to his good 
pleasure, humiliating as it was to them. Accord- 
ingly, one and all publicly offered up eleven prayers, 
which were considered a sufficient testimony of 
their having renounced paganispri and embraced 
the doctrines of the Prophet." 

On the 8th of January (1796), Demba Sego came 
back with the horse which he had borrowed. Park^-^ 
immediately went to his father, and announced his 
intention of setting out for Kooniakary early on the 
next day. The old man made many frivolous ob- 
jections, and at length gave him plainly to under- 
stand that he must not think of departing until he 
had paid the duties usually required from travel- 
lers by the governor ; coolly adding, that he ex- 
pected some acknowledgment for the kindness 
which he had displayed towards his visiter. 

On the following morning Demba Sego came 
with a number of people to receive the present for 
his father. Park quietly offered him seven bars of 
amber and five of tobacco. Demba surveyed them 
for some time very coolly, and then laid them down, 
with the remark that such a present was not a fit- 
ting one for a man of Tiggity Sego's consequence, 
who had it in his power to take whatever he pleas- 
ed. A repetition of the plundering scene at Joag 
now followed ; Demba's attendants opened the bun. 
dies, spread the contents upon the floor, and took 
everything that pleased them, while their master, 
among other things, seized the tin box which had 
BO much caught his fancy in crossing the Senegal. 



Mf^ 



54 PAKE S ARRIVAL A^'D 

" Upon collecting the scattered remains of my lit- 
tie fortune," says Park, " after these people had 
left me, I found that, as at Joag, I had been plun- 
dered of half, so here, without even the shadow of 
accusation, I was deprived of half the remainder." 

Early on the next morning, January the 10th, 
Park quitted Teesee ; and on the afternoon of the 
following day arrived at Jumbo, the native town of 
his companion, the blacksmith, who had been ab- 
sent from it four years. Here he experienced a 
most friendly and joyous reception. As the party 
approached the town, the blacksmith's brother, 
who had by some means been apprized of his com- 
ing, issued forth to meet him, accompanied by a 
singing man ; he brought with him also a horse, 
that the blacksmith might enter his native town in 
a dignified manner ; and, to increase the solemnity 
of the ceremony, desired the travellers to put a 
good charge of powder into their guns. The sing. 
ing man now led the way, followed by the two 
brothers ; and the party was quickly joined by a 
number of the townspeople, all of whom demon- 
strated their great joy at the return of their old 
acquaintance by the most extravagant jumping and 
singing. As the procession entered the town, the 
singing man began an extempore song in praise of 
the blacksmith, extolling his courage in having 
overcome so many difficulties, and strictly enjoin- 
ing his "friends to dress him plenty of victuals. 

" When we arrived at the blacksmith's place of 
residence," says Park, " we dismounted and fired 
our muskets. The meeting between him and his 
relations was very tender ; for these rude children 
of nature, free from restraint, display their emo- 



RECEPTION AT JUMBO. 55 

tioiis in the strongest and most expressive manner. 
Amid these transports, the blacksmith's aged moth- 
er was led forth, leaning upon a staff. Every one 
made way for her ; and she stretched out her hand 
to bid her son welcome* Being totally blind, she 
stroked his hands, arms, and face with great care ; 
and seemed highly delighted that her latter days 
were blessed by his return, and that her ears once 
more heard the music of his voice. From this in- 
terview, I was fully convinced that, whatever dif- 
ference there is between the negro and European 
in the conformation of the nose and the colour of 
their skin, there is none in the genuine sympathies^ 
and characteristic feelings of our common nature." 
During the tumult of these congratulations. Park 
seated himself apart by the side of one of the huts, 
and the attention of the company was so entirely 
taken up with the blacksmith, that none of them had 
observed him. When all the people had seated 
themselves, the blacksmith was desired by his fa- 
ther to give them some account of his adventures ; 
and silence being commanded, he began ; and, af- 
ter repeatedly thanking God for the success that 
had attended him, related every material occur- 
rence that had happened to him from his leaving 
Kasson to his arrival at Gambia ; his employment 
and success in those parts ; and the dangers he 
had escaped in returning to his native country. 
•^In the latter part of his narration," says Park, 
" he had frequently occasion to mention me ; and, 
after many strong expressions concerning my kind- 
ness to him, he pointed to the place where 1 sat, 
and exclaimed, * Offille ibi siring^ (see him sitting 
there). In a moment all eyes were turned upon 



!>6 park's iiUDlEAUE OF THE 

me : I appeared like a being dropped from the 
clouds ; every one was surprised that they had not 
observed me before ; and a few women and chil- 
dren expressed great uneasiness at being so near a 
man of such an uncommon appearance. By de- 
grees, however, their apprehension subsided ; and 
when the blacksmith assured them that I was per- 
fectly inoffensive, and would hurt nobody, some of 
them ventured so far as to examine the texture of 
my clothes ; but many of them were still very sus- 
picious ; and when, by accident, I happened to move 
myself or look at the young children, their mothers 
would scamper off with them with the greatest 
precipitation. In a few hours, however, they all 
became reconciled to me." 

Early on the 14th of January Park set out for 
Kooniakary, where the King of Kasson resided. 
On approaching it, however, he deviated a little to 
the village of Soolo on the south, in order to visit 
a Gambia trader of great note, upon whom Dr. 
Laidley had given him an order for an outstanding 
debt. Salim Daucari, as this trader was called, 
received his visiters with great Kindness and atten- 
tion ; but Park had been with him only a few hours 
before Sambo Sego, the king's second son, came to 
inquire why he had not proceeded direct to Kooni- 
akary, where his majesty was waiting impatiently 
to see him. Salim Daucari made an apology for 
his guest, and promised to accompany him to Koo- 
niakary that evening. Park notices it as remark- 
able that the king should have been so soon ap- 
prized of his motions. 

On arriving with Salim Daucari at Kooniakary 
about an hour after sunset, he found that the king 



KING OF KASSON. 57 

had gone to sleep ; and, accordingly, deferred the 
interview till the next day. About eight o'clock in 
the morning he proceeded to the audience, and had 
great difficulty in gaining admittance through the 
crowd of people assembled to see him. He found 
King Demba Sego Jalla, as the monarch was called, 
sitting upon a mat in a large hut, and experienced 
a very kind reception; the " good old king," to 
use his own expression, promised him all the assist- 
ance in his ])ower. " He informed me," says Park, 
" that he had seen Major Houghton, and presented 
him with a white horse ; but that, after crossing 
the kingdom of Kaarta, he had lost his Jife among 
the Moors ; in what manner he could not inform 
me. When this audience was ended, we returned 
to our lodging, and I made up a small present for 
the king out of the few effects that were left me ; 
for I had not yet received anything from Salim 
Daucari. This present, though inconsiderable in 
itself, was well received by the king, who sent me 
in return a large white bullock. The sight of this 
animal quite delighted my attendants ; not so much 
on account of its bulk, as from its being a w^hite 
colour ; which is considered as a particular mark 
of favour." 

But here obstacles arose to Park's progress, 
more serious than any he had yet encountered. 
The country through which his route would lie on 
quitting Kasson was the kingdom of Kaarta ; and 
he now learned that the kingdom was not only in- 
volved in the issue of the war which had been for 
some time on the point of breaking out between 
Kasson and Kajaaga, but was likewise threatened 
with hostilities on the part of Bambarra. By the 



58 park's journey into kaarta. 

advice of King Demba Sego Jalla, he resolved to 
wait a few days, until messengers could be sent to 
ascertain the actual state of atfairs in Kaarta. Du. 
ring his stay he received from Salim Daucari a part 
of the debt due to Dr. Laidley, principally in gpld- 
dustj the fact reached the ears of Sambo Sego, 
tne king's second son, who forthwith came with a 
party of horsemen, and was with much difficulty 
prevailed upon to accept sixteen bars of European 
merchandise, with some powder and ball, in satis- 
faction of all demands. 

On the first of February the messengers arrived 
from Kaarta with intelligence that the Bambarra 
army had not yet invaded that country ; and on 
the 3d Park set off in the hope of yet having time 
to pass through it before the war began. He was 
conducted to the frontiers of Kaarta by two guides 
on horseback, whom King Demba Sego Jalla had 
sent with him ; and as he advanced, he met hun- 
dreds of people flying from Kaarta with their fam- 
ilies and effects. On the 9th, having passed the 
ridge of hills separating the two kingdoms, he en- 
tered upon the level and sandy plains of Kaarta. 

At Feesurah, the first village of Kaarta, Park 
found it necessary, in consequence of the fears of 
his attendants, to induce his landlord, by the pros- 
ent of a blanket, to accompany the party to the 
capital Kemmoo, for their protection upon the road. 
This man was onre of those negroes who, together 
with the ceremonial part of the Mohammedan re- 
ligion, retain all their ancient superstitions, and 
even drink strong liquors ; they were called Johars ■ 
or Jowers, and in the kingdom of Kaarta formed a 
very numerous and powerful body. 



AN AMUSING ADVENTURE. 59 

" We had no soaner," says Park, " got into a 
dark and lonely part of the first wood, than he made 
a sign for us to stop, and taking hold of a hollow 
piece of bamboo, that hung as an amulet round his 
neck, whistled very loud three times. I confess I 
was somewhat startled, thinking it was a signal 
for some of his companions to come and attack us ; 
but he assured me that it was done merely with a 
view to ascertain what success we were likely to 
meet with on our present journey. He then dis- 
mounted, laid his spear across the road, and hav- 
ing said a number of short passages, concluded 
with three loud whistles ; after which he listened 
for some time, as if in expectation of an answer, 
and receiving none, told us we might proceed with- 
out fear, as there was no danger." 

As the party advanced, they found many large 
villages deserted, the inhabitants having iled to 
Kasson, to avoid the horrors of the approaching 
war. As they drew near to Kemmoo, an amusing 
incident occurred. " I had wandered a little from 
my people," says Park, " and being uncertain 
whether they were before or behind me, I hasten- 
ed to a rising ground to look about me. As I was 
proceeding towards this eminence, two negro horse- 
men, armed with muskets, came galloping from 
among the bushes ; on seeing them I made a full 
stop, and the horsemen did the same, and all of us 
seemed equally surprised and confounded at this 
interview. As I approached them their fears in- 
creased, and one of them, after casting upon me a 
look of horror, rode off at full speed ; the other, in 
a panic of fear, put his hand over his eyes, and con- 
tinued muttering prayers, until his horse, seemingly 



(iO OBSTACLES TO PARK S PROGRESS. 

without the rider's knowledge, conveyed him slowly 
after his companion. About a mile to the west- 
ward they fell in with my attendants, to whom 
they related a frightful story. It seems their fears 
had dressed me in the flowing robes of a tremen- 
dous spirit ; and one of them affirmed, that when I 
made my appearance, a cold blast of wind came 
pouring down upon him from the sky like sc much 
cold water." 

On the 12th they entered Kemmoo, the capital 
of Kaarta, where the curiosity of the people to see 
the white man was so great, that ihe large hut 
assigned to him by the king was successively filled 
and emptied thirteen times. In the evening Park 
had an audience of the king, Daisy Koorabarri by 
name, who was seated on a leopard's skin, spread 
over a bank of earth about two feet high. He was 
received with great kindness by the monarch, who 
endeavoured to dissuade him from prosecuting his 
journey, and recommended him to return into Kas- 
son for three or four months, when the war proba- 
bly would be ended. " This advice," says Park, 
" was certainly well meant on the part of the king, 
and perhaps I was to blame in not following it ; 
but I reflected that the hot months were approach- 
ing, and I dreaded the thoughts of spending the 
rainy season in the interior of Africa." 

Finding that Park was determined to proceed, 
the king told him that there still remained one route 
into Bambarra — circuitous, and by no moans free 
from danger — that was, through the Mooi ish king- 
dom of Ludamar, to the frontier town of which, 
Jarra, he would furnish guides. At this juncture 
intelligence was brought that the Bambarra armv 



HIS JOUKr^'EY TOAVARDS LUDAMAR. 61 

was on its march towards Kaarta ; and Park at 
once resolved to take the route suggested, through 
Ludamar. It was an unfortunate determination ; 
to use his own expression, " the immediate cause of 
all the misfortunes and calamities which afterward 
befell him." 



CHAPTER VI. 

Journey into the Moorish Kingdom of Ludamar. — A Vouth 
murdersd by the Moors.— Scene at his Death. — Particulars 
of Major Houghton's Fate.— Park's Arrival at Jarra. —Refusal 
of his Attendants to Proceed.— Fidelity of his Boy.— His Ill- 
treatment by the Moors at Deena.— His Journey to Dalli.and 
kind Reception there.— His Seizure by the Moors at Salee. — 
His Conveyance to Benown. — His Treatment by All. — Insult- 
ing Behaviour of the Moors towards him. 

[1796 ] 

In quitting Kemmoo on the 13th of February, 
Park abandoned the westerly course which, gener- 
ally speaking, he had hitherto followed in his jour- 
ney from the Gambia, and struck out direct to the 
north, towards Jarra, the frontier town of the Moor- 
ish kingdom of Ludamar. He was conducted by 
eight horsemen, whom King Daisy had kindly sent 
to serve him as guides ; and was accompanied for 
a short distance by three of his majesty^s sons, with 
about two hundred horsemen. On the 15th he 
reached the town of Funingkedy, where he wit- 
nessed a specimen of the behaviour of the Moors, 
not at all calculated to assure him of a pleasing re- 



/u^ 



62 A YOUTH MURDERED 

ception among them. As he was lying asleep in 
the afternoon upon a bullock's hide, behind the 
door of his hut, he was awakened by the screams 
of women, and a general clamour and confusion 
among the inhabitants. At first he suspected that 
the Bambarrans had actually entered the town ; 
but, observing his boy upon the top of one of the 
huts, he called to him to know what was the mat- 
ter. The boy informed him that the Moors were 
come to steal the cattle, and that they were now 
close to the town. Park mounted the roof of the 
hut, and observed a large herd of bullocks coming 
towards the town, followed by five Moors on horse- 
back, who drove the cattle forward with their mus- 
kets. When they had reached the wells, close to 
the tov/n, the Moors selected from the herd sixteen 
of the finest beasts, and drove them off at full gal- 
lop. During this transaction, the townspeople, to 
the number of five hundred, stood collected close 
to the walls of the town ; and, though the Moors 
passed within pistol-shot, they scarcely made a 
show of resistance. Park saw only four muskets 
fired, and these, being loaded with gunpowder of 
the negroes' own manufacture, did no execution. 
Shortly afterward, he observed a number of people 
supporting a young man upon horseback, and con- 
ducting him slowly towards the town. This was 
one of the herdsmen, who, in attempting to throw 
his spear, had been wounded by a shot from one of 
the Moors. " His mother," says Park, " walked 
on before, quite frantic with grief, clapping her 
hands, and enumerating the good qualities of her 
son. ' Ee maffo fonio^ (he never told a lie), said 
the i disconsolate mother, as her wounded son was 



BY THE MOOKS. 63 

carried in at the gate. ' Ee maffo fonio (ibada" 
(he never told a lie ; no, never.) When they had 
conveyed him to his hut, and laid him upon a mat, 
all the spectators joined in lamenting his fate, by 
screaming and howling in the most piteous man- 
ner." 

On examining the wound, Park saw there was 
little hope for the boy's recovery ; and told the rel- 
atives that the only chance of saving his life was 
in cutting off the leg above the knee. They all 
started with horror at the proposal, and evidently 
considered Park as a sort of cannibal for making 
it. The poor boy was abandoned to his fate ; and 
his death-bed afforded a melancholy example of 
the superstition prevailing in these benighted re- 
gions. " The patient was committed," says Park, 
'' to the care of some old Bushreens, who endeav- 
oured to secure him a passage into Paradise by 
whispering in his ear some Arabic sentences, and 
desiring him to repeat them. After many unsuc- 
cessful attempts, the poor heathen at last pronoun- 
ced. La illah el allah, Mohammed rasowl allaM,"^ and 
the disciples of the Prophet assured his mother that 
her son had given sufficient evidence of his faith, 
and would be tiappy in a future state." He died 
the same evening. 

Proceeding with caution, from fear of the Moor- 
ish banditti, Park reached on the 18th the village of 
Simbing, on the frontier of Ludamar. It was from 
this place that the ill-fated Major Houghton, when 
deserted by his negro servants, who refused to fol- 
low him into the Moorish country, wrote his last 

* " There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet/ 
the Mussulman creed. 



64 FATE OF MAJOR IIOUOHTON. 

letter, with a pencil, to Dr. Laidley. From the 
information which Park afterward gathered, it ap- 
pears that the adventurous traveller, on his arrival 
at Jarra, became acquainted with certain Moorish 
merchants, who were travelling to Tisheet (a place 
near the salt-pits, in the Great Desert, ten days' 
journey to the northward) to purchase salt ; and 
the major, at the expense of a musket and some to- 
bacco, engaged them to convey him thither. Park 
thinks it impossible to form any other opinion on 
this determination than that the Moors intention- 
ally deceived him, either with regard to the route 
that he wished to pursue, or the state of the inter- 
mediate country between Jarra and Tombuctoo ; 
and that they probably designed to rob him, and 
leave him in the desert. At the end of two days 
he suspected their treachery, and insisted on re- 
turning to Jarra. Finding him persist in this de- 
termination, the Moors robbed him of everything 
he possessed, and went off with their camels ; the 
poor major, being thus deserted, returned on foot 
to a watering-place in possession of the Moors, 
called Tarra. He had been some days without 
food, and the unfeeling Moors refusing to give him 
any, he sunk at last under his distresses. ^' Wheth- 
er," says Park, " he actually perished of hunger, or 
was murdered outright by the savage Mohammed- 
ans, is not certainly known ; his body was dragged 
into the woods, and I was shown from a distance 
the spot where his remains were left to perish."* 
About noon on the 18th Park arrived at Jarra 

^ For some farther account of this unfortunate traveller, see 
Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in Africa, p. 80. Harpers' 
Family Library, No. xvi. 



park's attendants refuse to proceed. 65 

a large town situated at the bottom of some rocky 
hills. He obtained a lodging at the house of Da- 
man Jumma, a Gambia Slatee, upon whom Dr. 
Laidley had given him an order for the value of 
six slaves. The debt was one of five years' stand- 
ing ; but the Slatee readily acknowledged it, though . 
he feared his inability to pay more than one third- 
of it at that time. Our traveller received from 
him, however, material assistance in exchanging 
his beads and amber for gold, an article more port- 
able and more easily concealed from the Moors. 

Park's attendants now refused to proceed one 
step farther with him, on account of their fear of 
the Moors. He says that he could not condemn 
their apprehensions, as the danger they incurred 
of being seized by those savages and sold in sla- 
very, became every day more apparent. He resolv- 
ed, nevertheless, to continue his journey into Bam- 
barra, and for that purpose hired one of Daman's 
slaves to accompany him. It was necessary, how- 
ever, to obtain permission from Ali, the chief or 
sovereign of Ludamar, to pass through his territo- 
ry ; and a message was accordingly despatched with 
a present to the monarch, who then lay encamped 
near Benown. On the evening of the 26th of Feb- 
ruary, one of Ali's slaves arrived at Jarra, with di- 
rections, as he said, to conduct Park on his way 
as far as Goomba. On th^ following day Park de- 
livered most of his papers to his attendant, John- 
son, to be conveyed as soon as possible to the Gam- 
bia. His faithful boy, Demba, no longer talked of 
refusing to proceed ; telling him that be had never 
entertained any serious thoughts of deserting him, 



66 park's ill-treatment by the moors. 

but had been advised to it by Johnson, with the view 
of inducing him to turn back. 

On the 1st of March, the third day after leaving 
Jarra, Park arrived at the large town of Deena, 
where the Moors, being in greater proportion to 
the negroes than at Jarra, were more bold in ill- 
treating him. They assembled round the hut of 
the negro in which he lodged, and treated him 
with the greatest insolence : they hissed, shouted, 
and abused him ; they even spat in his face, with 
a view to irritate him, and afford them a pretext 
for seizing his baggage. But, finding that such in- 
sults had not the desired effect, they had recourse 
to the final and decisive argument that he was a 
Christian, and that, of course, his property was 
lawful plunder to the followers of Mohammed. 
They accordingly opened his bundles, and robbed 
him of everything which they fancied. His attend- 
ants, finding that everybody could plunder him with 
impunity, insisted on returning to Jarra. 

On the following day he found his attendants 
obstinate in their refusal to proceed. Therefore, 
on the following morning, about two o'clock, he 
departed alone from Deena. " It was moonlight, 
but the roaring of the wild beasts made it necessa- 
ry to proceed with caution." When he had reach- 
ed a rising ground, about half a mile from the 
town, he heard somebody-halloo, and, looking back, 
saw his faithful boy, Demba, running after him. 
The lad told himx that, if he would stop a little, 
Daman's negro might be persuaded to accompany 
them. Park waited accordingly ; and in about an 
hour the boy returned with the negro. 

On the 4th he reached Sampaka, and lodged in 



HIS ARRIVAL AT DALLI. 67 

the house of a negro who practised the art of ma- 
king gunpowder.* On the road thither he observ- 
ed immense quantities of locusts, the trees being 
quite black with them. These insects, he says, 
devour every vegetable that comes in their way, 
and in a short time completely strip a tree of its 
leaves. '' When a tree is shaken or struck, it is 
astonishing to see what a cloud of them will fly off. 
In their flight they yield to the current of the wind, 
which at this season of the year is always from the 
N.E. Should the wind shift, it is difl[icu]t to con- 
ceive where they could collect food, as the whole 
of their course was marked with desolation." 

On the 5th Park reached the town of Dalli. It 
was a feast-day there, and the people were dancing 
before the dooty's house ; but when they heard 
that a white man had arrived, they left off and re- 
paired to his lodging, walking in regular order, two 
and two, with the music before them. The dancing 
and singing continued till midnight, Park sitting still 
all the while, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the 
crowd that surrounded him. He proceeded the 
next evening to the village of Samee, where he 
was most hospitably received by the dooty, who, 
Dot content with killing two sheep in honour of the 
white man's visit, insisted upon his staying the fol- 
lowing day until the cool of the evening. As he 
was now within two days' journey of Goomba, 
Park had no apprehensions concerning the Moors, 
and he readily accepted the invitation. He spent 

* Speaking of the gnnpowder made by the natives, Park says, 
" The grains are very unequal, and the sound of its explosion is 
by no means so sharp as that produced by European gunpow 
der." 

F 



G8 park's seizure by the ivioors. 

the forenoon of the 7th very pleasantly, he says, 
with these poor negroes, whose company was the 
more acceptable, as the gentleness of their man- 
ners presented a striking contrast to the rudeness 
and barbarity of the Moors. 

" In the midst of this harmless festivity, I flat- 
tered myselfj" says Park, '' that all danger from 
the Moors was over. Fancy had already placed 
me on the banks of the Niger, and presented to 
my imagination a thousand delightful scenes in my 
future progress, when a party of Moors unexpect- 
edly entered the hut and dispelled the golden dream. 
They came, they said, by All's orders^ to convey 
me to his camp at Benown. If I went peacea- 
bly, they told me, I had nothing to fear ; but if I 
refused, they had orders to bring me by force. 1 
was struck dumb by surprise and terror, which the 
Moors observing, endeavoured to calm my appre- 
nensions, by repeating the assurance tliat I had no- 
thing to fear. Their visit, they added, was occa- 
sioned by the curiosity of All's wife, Fatima, who 
had heard so much about Christians that she was 
very desirous to see one ; as soon as her curiosity 
should be satisfied, they had no doubt, they said, 
that Ali would give me a handsome present, and 
send a person to conduct me to Bambarra. Find- 
ing entreaty and resistance equally fruitless, I pre- 
pared to follow the messengers, and took leave of 
my landlord and his company with great reluctance. 
Accompanied by my faithful boy (for Daman's slav^ 
had made his escape on seeing the Moors), we reach, 
ed Dalli in the evening, where we were strictly 
watched by the Moors during the night," 

As he journeyed back with his captors, he had 



lllfljiii is II ,i 




I ii I 



HIS ARRIVAL AT BENOWN. 71 

several opportunities of observing the infamous 
character of the Moors. At Deena, where he had 
been so badly treated by them a few days before, 
he went to pay his respects to one of Ali's sons ; 
as soon as he was seated, the royal youth hand- 
ed him a double-barrelled gun, telling him to dye 
the stock blue, and mend one of the locks. Park 
bad great difficulty in persuading him that he 
knew nothing about the matter. " If you cannot 
repair the gun," then said the prince, " you shall 
give me some knives and scissors immediately ;" 
and when the boy Demba, who acted as Park's in- 
terpreter, declared that his master had no such ar- 
ticles, the barbarian hastily snatched up a musket 
that stood by him, cocked it, and putting the muz- 
zle close to the boy's ear, would certainly have 
shot him dead on the spot. Had not the Moors 
wrested the weapon from him, and made signs for 
the strangers to retire. The boy was so terrified 
that he tried to make his escape in the night ; but 
the vigilance of the Moors was too strict. 

A little before sunset on the 12th, the party 
reached Benown, as the residence of Ali was call- 
ed ; a collection of dirty-looking tents, scattered, 
without order, over a large space of ground, and 
intermixed with herds of camels, cattle, and goats. 
" My arrival," says Park, " was no sooner observ- 
ed, than the people who drew water at the wells 
threw down their buckets ; those in the tents 
mounted their horses, and men, women, and chil- 
dren came running or galloping towards me. I 
soon found myself surrounded by such a crowd 
that I could scarcely move ; one pulled my clothes, 
another took off my hat, a third stopped me to ex- 



72 park's visit to ali's tent. 

amine my waistcoat-buttons, and a fourth called 
out, La illah el allah, Mohammed rasowl allahii^ 
and signified in a threatening manner that I must 
repeat those words. We reached at length the 
king's tent, where we found a number of people, 
men and women, assembled. Ali was sitting upon 
a black leather cushion, clipping a few hairs from 
his upper lip, a female attendant holding up a look- 
ing-glass before him. He appeared to be an old 
man, of the Arab cast, with a long white beard ; 
and he had a sullen and indignant aspect. He sur- 
veyed me with attention, and inquired of the Moors 
if I could speak Arabic ; being answered in the 
negative, he appeared much surprised, and contin- 
ued silent. The surrounding attendants, and es- 
pecially the ladies, were abundantly more inquisi- 
tive ; they asked 2# thousand questions, inspected 
every part of my apparal, searched my pockets, 
and obliged me to unbutton my waistcoat and dis- 
play the whiteness of my skin ; they even counted 
my toes and fingers, as if they doubted whether'in 
truth I was a human being. In a little time the 
priest announced evening prayers ; but, before the 
people separated, the Moor who acted as interpret- 
er informed me that Ali was about to present me 
with something to eat ; and, looking round, I ob- 
served some boys bringing a wild hog, which they 
tied to one of the tent-strings, and Ali made signs 
to me to kill and dress it for supper. Though I 
was very hungry, I did not think it prudent to eat 
any part of an animal so much detested by the 
Moors, and therefore told him that I never ate such 
food. They then untied the hog, in hopes that it 
^ See page 63. 



INSULTING BKHAVaOtlK Of THE MoORS. "i *3 

would run immediately at me ; for they believe that 
a great emiiity subsists between hogs and Chris- 
tians. But in this they were disappointed ; for 
the animal no sooner regained his liberty, than he 
began to attack, indiscriminately, every person that 
came in his way, and at last took shelter under the 
couch upon which the king w^as sitting. The as- 
sembly being thus dissolved, I was conducted to 
the tent of All's chief slave, but was not permitted 
to enter, nor touch anything belonging to it. I re- 
quested something to eat, and a little boiled corn, 
with salt and water, was at length sent me in a 
wooden bowl ; and a mat was spread upon the sand 
before the tent, on which I passed the night, sur- 
rounded by the curious multitude." 

In the morning All assigned him a tent ; and 
when he entered it, he found the wild hog tied to 
one of its supports. The boys came and amused 
themselves by beating the animal with sticks until 
it became so irritated as to run and bite at every 
person within its reach. The men and women 
then came in crowds to see the white man, and 
kept him from noon to night dressing and undress- 
ing, buttoning and unbuttoning. 

During the night the Moors kept a regular watch, 
and frequently looked into the hut to see if he was 
asleep, lighting a wisp of grass when it was quite 
dark. " About two in the morning," he says, " a 
Moor entered the hut, probably with a view to steal 
something, or, perhaps, to murder me ; and, gro- 
ping about, laid his hand upon my shoulder. As 
night visiters were at best but suspicious charac- 
ters, I sprang up the moment he laid his hand upon 
me • and the Moor, in his haste to get oSf stumbled 



ii INSULTING BEHAVIOUR OF THE MOOES. 

over my boy, and fell with his face upon the wild 
hog, which returned the attack by biting the Moor'i» 
arm. The screams of this man alarmed the peo- 
ple in the king's tent, who immediately conjectured 
that I had made my escape, and a number of them 
mounted their horses and prepared to pursue me. 
I observed upon this occasion that Ali did not sleep 
in his own tent, but came galloping upon a white 
horse from a small tent at a considerable distance ; 
indeed, the tyrannical and cruel behaviour of this 
man made him so jealous of every person around 
him, that even his own slaves and domestics knew 
not where he slept. When the Moors had explain- 
ed to him the cause of this outcry, they all went 
away, and I was permitted to sleep quietly until 
morning." 

The following day witnessed the same round of 
insult and irritation. The boys assembled to beat 
the hog ; the men and women to plague the Chris- 
tian. " It is impossible for me," says Park, '' to 
describe the behaviour of a people who study mis- 
chief as a science, and exult in the miseries and 
misfortunes of their fellow-creatures. It is suffi- 
cient to observe, that the rudeness, ferocity, and 
fanaticism which distinguish the Moor from the 
rest of mankind, found here a proper subject where- 
on to exercise their propensities. I was a stranger 
I was unprotected, and I was a Christian; each of 
these circumstances is sufficient to drive away ev- 
ery spark of humanity from the heart of a Moor , 
but when all of them, as in my case, were com- 
bined in the same person ; and a suspicion prevail- 
ed, withal, that I had come as a spy into the coun- 
try, the reader will easily imagine that, in such a 



PARK S DEBUT AS A BARBER. ^b 

situation, I had everything to fear. Anxious, how- 
ever, to conciliate favour, and, if possible, to afford 
the Moors no pretence for ill-treating me, I readily 
conaplied with every comnaand, and patiently bore 
every insult ; but never did any period of my life 
pass away so heavily : from sunrise to sunset was 
I obliged to suffer, with unruffled countenance, the 
insults of the rudest savages on earth." 



HAPTER VII. 

Park's Debut as a Barber, and the Result.— Rapacity of King 
All towards him.— The Monarch's Perplexity at a Pocket 
Compass.— His Refusal to allow Park's Departure. — The 
Traveller's distressing Condition. — A Sand-wind. — Sultriness 
of the Weather. — Continued Ill-treatment of Park. — His 
Sufferings from Hunger.— Removal of the Moorish Camp. — 
Park's Introduction to giieejnL.^tima. — Excessive Heat and 
Scarcity of Water.-— T*'ST?sSii5errrigs from Thirst. — Fortu- 
nate Change in his favour. 

[1796.] 

Though the Moors themselves are very indolent, 
they seldom allow others to remain idle. The boy, 
Demba, was sent to the woods to collect withered 
grass for Ali's horses ; and his master was order- 
ed to fill the office of harber. He was to make 
his first exhibition in this capacity in the royal 
presence, and to be honoured with the task of sha- 
ving the head of the young prince of Ludamar. 
" I accordingly seated myself upon the sand," he 
says, " and the boy with some hesitation sat down 
beside me. A small razor about three inches long 



76 RAPACITY OF KING ALL 

was put into my hand, and I was ordered to pro- 
ceed ; but whether from my own want of skill or 
the improper shape of the instrument, I unfortu- 
nately made a slight incision in the boy's head at 
the very commencement of the operation ; and the 
king, observing the awkward manner in which I 
held the razor, concluded that his son's he^d was 
in very improper hands', and ordered me to resign 
the razor and walk out of the tent. This I con- 
sidered as a very fortunate circumstance, for I had 
laid it dov/n as a rule to make myself as useless 
and insignificant as possible, as the only means of 
recovering my liberty." 

On the 18th of March, his interpreter, Johnson, 
who refused to accompany him beyond Jarra, was 
brought from that town by the Moors ; as was also 
a bundle of clothes which Park had left at the house 
of the Slatee, Daman Jumma. Fortunately, John- 
son had committed his papers to the charge of one 
of Daman's wives. In the evening our traveller 
received a significant intimation from Ali, that, as 
there .were thieves in the neighbourhood, it was ne- 
cessary that the rest of his things should be con- 
veyed into the royal tent ; and they were taken 
accordingly. Being disappointed, however, in their 
value, the king sent the next morning to search his 
person, and Park was then stripped of all his gold 
and amber, his watch, and one of his pocket com- 
passes. He had fortunately, in the night, buried 
the other compass in the sand ; and " this," he says, 
" with the' clothes I had on, was ail that the tyran- 
ny of Ali had now left me." 

His majesty was much perplexed by the com- 
pass, and became very desirous of learning why 



A COUNCIL HELD CONCERNING PARK. 77 

" that small piece of iron" always pointed to the 
Great Desert.* Our traveller, in his turn, was 
perplexed to answer the question. To have plead- 
ed his ignoi-ance would have raised a suspicion of 
his wishing to conceal the truth ; and he therefore, 
told the king that his mother resided far beyond 
the sands of Sahara ; that, while she was alive, the 
piece of iron would always point that way, and 
serve as a guide to conduct him to her ; and that, 
when she was dead, it would point to her grave. 
Ali now looked at the compass with double amaze- 
ment ; turned it round and round repeatedly ; but 
observing that it always pointed the same way, he 
took it up with great caution and returned it to 
Park, manifesting that he thought there was some- 
thing of magic in it, and that he was afraid of keep- 
ing so dangerous an instrument in his possession. 
On the foilowiftg day, being the 20th, a council 
of chief men was held in All's tent, concerning 
their Christian captive. This decision was various- 
ly reported to Park ; some told him that he was to 
be put to death, and others that he was .only to 
lose his right hand. " But the most probable ac- 
count," he says, " was that which I received from 
All's own son, a boy about nine years of age, who 
came to me in the evening, and with much concern 
informed me that his uncle had persuaded his fa- 
ther to put out my eyes, which, they said, resembled 
those of a cat, and that all the bushreens had ap- 
proved of this measure. His father, however, he 
said, would not put the sentence into execution un- 

* The Sahara, or Great Desert, is the northern boundary of 
Ludajnar, 



78 park's distressing condition. 

til Fatima, the queen, who was then in the North, 
had seen me." 

Early the next morning Park went to the king 
and begged permission to return to Jarra ; it was 
flatly refused, but a promise was given that he 
should be at liberty to depart when Queen Fatima 
had seen him. "Unsatisfactory as this answer 
was," he says, " I was forced to appear pleased ; 
and as there was little hopes of my making any 
escape at this season of the year, on account of 
the excessive heat, and the total want of water in 
the woods, I resolved to wait patiently until the 
rains had set in, or until some more favourable op- 
portunity should present itself; but iiope deferred 
maketh the heart sick. This tedious procrastina- 
tion from day to day, and the thoughts of travelling 
through the negro kingdoms in the rainy season, 
which was now fast approachiftg, made me very 
melancholy ; and, having passed a restless night, 
I found myself attacked in the morning by a smart 
fever. I had wrapped myself close up in my cloak, 
with a view to induce perspiration, and was asleep 
when a party of Moors entered the tent, and with 
their usual rudeness pulled the cloak from me. 
I made signs to them that I was sick, and wished 
much to sleep ; but I solicited in vain ; my dis- 
tress was matter of sport to them, and they en- 
deavoured to heighten it by every means in their 
power. This studied and degrading insolence, to 
which I was constantly exposed, was one of the bit- 
terest ingredients in the cup of captivity, and often 
made life itself a burden to me. In those distress- 
ing moments I have frequently envied the situation 
of the slave, who, amid all his calamities, could 



HE VISITS THE ROYAL LADIES. 79 

still possess the enjoyments of his own thoughts, a 
happiness to which I had for some time been a 
stranger. Wearied out with such continual in- 
suits, and, perhaps, a little peevish from the fever, I 
trembled lest my passions might unawares overleap 
the bounds of prudence, and spur me to some sud- 
den act of resentment, when death must be the in- 
evitable consequence. In this perplexity I left my 
tent, aad walked to some shady trees at a little dis- 
tance from the camp, where I lay down. But even 
here persecution followed me, and solitude was 
thought too great an indulgence for a distressed 
Christian. All's son, with a number of horsemen, 
came galloping to the place, and ordered me to 
rise and follow them." He had been suspected, it 
appeared, of intending to make his escape ; he was 
therefore taken to Ali's tent, and informed that, in 
future, if he were seen without the skirts of the 
camp, he would be shot by the first person who ob- 
served him. 

On the afternoon of the 28th he was permitted 
to ride out with Ali, on a visit to some of the royal 
ladies. He was conducted to four tents, at every 
one of which he was presented with a bowl of milk 
and water. The ladies, who were all remarkably 
corpulent,* surveyed him with great attention, but 
they affected to consider him as a sort of inferior 
being, knitting their dusky brows, and seeming to 
shudder when they looked at the whiteness of his 
skin. 

* With the Moors " corpulence and beauty appear to be near- 
ly synonymous terms. A woman of even moderate pretensions 
must be one who cannot walk without a slave under each arm 
to support her : and a perfect beauty is a load for a camel." 



80 A SAND-WIND. 

The weather had now become extremely sultry, I 
and Park suffered much from the heat and dust, i 
and felt acutely the loss of the linen of which Ali 
had robbed him. Towards the close of March, a } 
sand-wind prevailed for two days, with slight inter: I 
missions, the air being at times so filled that it ' 
was difficult to discern the neighbouring tents. '| 
The sand fell in great plenty among \he kouskous ;* 
it readily adhered to the skin when moistened by 
perspiration, and formed " a cheap and universal 
hair- powder." On the 7th of April, about four 
o'clock in the afternoon, a whirlwind passed through 
the camp, with such violence that it overturned 
three tents, and blew down one side of Park's. 
" These whirlwinds," says Park, " come from the 
Great Desert, and at this season of the year are so 
common, that I have seen five or six of them at a 
time. They carry up quantities of sand to an 
amazing height, which resemble, at a distance, so 
many moving pillars of smoke. The scorching 
heat of the sun upon a dry and sandy country 
makes the air insufferably hot. Ali having robbed 
me of my thermometer, I had no means of forming 
a comparative judgment ; but in the middle of the 
day, when the beams of the vertical sun are sec- 
onded by the scorching wind from the Desert, the 
ground is frequently heated to such a degree as 
not to be borne by the naked foot ; even the negro 
slaves will not run from one tent to another with- 
out their sandals. At this time of the day the 
Moors lie stretched at length in their tents, either 
asleep or unwilling to mcyve ; and I have often felt 
the wind so hot, that I could not hold my hand in 
* Seepage 41. 



PARK OBLIGED TO KEEP LENT. 81 

the current of air which came through the crevices 
of my tent without feeling sensible pain." 

One whole month of captivity had Park now 
endured ; and during that space, each succeeding 
day brought him fresh distresses. " I watched," he 
says, " the lingering course of the sun with anx- 
iety, and blessed his evening beams as they shed a 
yellow lustre along the sandy floor of my tent ; 
for it was then that .r^y oppressors left me, and al- 
lowed me to pass the sultry night in soHtude and 
reflection." About this time the Ra7nadan, or pe- 
riod of the Mohammedan Lent, happened to fall ; 
and as the Moors, Hke most Mussulmans, kept the ' 
severe fast with a religious strictness, they thought 
proper to make their Christian captive do likewise. 
Time, however, had somewhat reconciled him to 
his sufferings ; and he found, he says, that he could 
bear hunger and thirst better than he expected. 
To beguile the tedious hours, he, learned to write 
Arabic from the people who came to see him ; and 
when he observed any one whose countenance in- 
dicated malice towards him, he made it a rule to ask 
that person either to write some characters in the 
sand, or to decipher what he himself had already 
written. *' The pride of showing his superior at- 
tainments," says Park, " generally induced him to 
comply with my request." 

On the 14th of April, as Queen Fatima had not 
arrived, Ali resolved to go to the North and fetch 
her ; he accordingly left Benown about midnight 
on the 16th. Park's treatment was now worse 
than before ; the dressing of his victuals was left 
entirely to the care of Ah's slaves, over whom he 
had not the slightest control, and he found him. 



82 park's sufferings from hunger. 

self not even so well supplied as he had been du- 
ring the fast month. " For two successive nights," 
he says, " they neglected to send us our accustom- 
ed meal ; and though my boy went to a small ne- 
gro town near the camp, and begged with great 
diligence from hut to hut, he could only procure 
a few handfuls of ground-nuts, which he readily 
shared with me. Hunger, at first, is certainly a 
very painful sensation ; but when it has continued 
for some time, this pain is succeeded by languor 
and debility, in which case a draught of water, by 
keeping the stomach distended, will greatly exhil. 
arate the spirits, and remove for a short time ev- 
ery sort of uneasiness. Johnson and Demba were 
very much dejected ; they lay streched upon the 
sand in a sort of torpid slumber : and even when 
the kouskous arrived, I found some difficulty in 
awaking them. I felt no inclination to sleep, but 
was affected with a deep, convulsive respiration, 
like constant sighing ; and, what alarmed me still 
more, a dimness of sight, and a tendency to faint 
when I attempted to sit up. These symptoms did 
not go off until some time after I had received 
nourishment." 

Such was the condition of Park, when, on the 
29th of April, intelligence reached Benown that 
Mansong, the king of Bambarra, was marching 
with his army towards Ludamar, to chastise AH 
for having refused to furnish certain promised suc- 
cours, and for having treated with contempt the 
messengers sent to demand it. In the afternoon 
the tents were struck, and on the following morn- 
ing the whole camp was in motion to the north- 
ward. Four days elapsed before they reached 



SCARCITY OF WATER. 83 

All's new encampment, which was in the middle of 
a thick wood, about two miles from a negro town 
called Bubaker. In the hurry and confusion of 
this removal, the wants of our unfortunate traveller 
were Httle heeded by his barbarous oppressors. 

As soon as he arrived at the new camp on the 
afternoon of the 3d of May, Park waited upon 
Ali to pay his respects to Queen Fatima. The 
king seemed much pleased at his coming, shook 
hands with him, and informed his wife that " he 
was the Christian." This royal lady, whose curi- 
osity had been so disastrous to Park, was a woman 
of the Arab cast, with long black hair ; and, in ac- 
cordance with the Moorish taste, she was remark- 
ably corpulent. At first she appeared rather shock- 
ed at having a Christian so near her ; but when 
Park had answered a great many questions respect- 
ing the country of the Christians, she seemed more 
at ease, and presented him with a bowl of milk, 
which he considered as a very favourable omen. 

The heat had now become almost insufferable ; 
" all nature seemed sinking under it." The dis- 
tant country presented to the eye a dreary expanse 
of sand, with a few stunted trees and prickly bush- 
es, in the shade of which the hungry cattle licked 
up the withered grass, while the camels and goats 
picked off the scanty foliage. Water became ex- 
tremely scarce. " Day and night the wells were 
crowded with cattle, lowing and fighting with each 
other to come at the trough ; excessive thirst made 
many of them furious ; others being too weak to 
contend for the water, endeavoured to quench their 
thirst by devouring the black mud from the gutters 
near the wells, which they did with great avidity 
':hoiigh it was commomy fatal to them/' 



84 park's sufferings from thirst. 

Park suffered severely from this scarcity of wa- 
ter ; Ali allowed him a skin, but whenever his boy 
went to fill it, the Moors at the wells gave the lad 
a sound drubbing for his presumption. " Every 
one was astonished," says Park, " that the slave of 
a Christian should attempt to draw water from wells 
which were dug by the followers of the Prophet. 
This treatment, at length, so frightened the boy, 
that 1 believe he would sooner have perished with 
thirst than attempt again to fill the skin ; he 
therefore contented himself with begging water 
from the negro slaves that attended the camp, and 
I followed his example, but with very indifferent 
success ; for though I let no opportunity sHp, and 
was very urgent in my solicitations, both to Moors 
and negroes, I was but ill supplied, and frequently 
passed the night in the situation of Tantalus. No 
sooner had I shut my eyes, than fancy would con- 
vey me to the streams and rivers of my native 
land ; there, as I wandered along the verdant brink, 
I surveyed the clear stream with transport, and 
hastened to swallow a delightful draught ; but alas ! 
disappointment awakened me, and I found myself a 
lonely captive, perishing of thirst amid the wilds 
of Africa!" 

One night, being quite feverish, he walked out 
himself to the wells, and requested permission to 
drink, but was driven away with outrageous abuse. 
At last he came to one of them at which there was 
only an old man with two boys. The man drew 
him up a bucket of water ; " but, as I was about to 
take hold of it," says Park, " he recollected that I 
was a Christian, and fearing that his bucket might 
be polluted by my lips, he dashed the water into 



FORTUNATE CHANGE IN HIS FAVOUR. 85 

the trough, and told me to drink from thence. 
Though this trough was none of the largest, and 
three cows were already drinking in it, I resolved 
to come in for my share ; and kneehng, thrust my 
head between two of the cows, and drank with 
great pleasure until the water was nearly exhaust- 
ed, and the cows began to contend with each other 
for the last mouthful." 

As the wet season was now approaching, when 
the Moors annually evacuate the country of the 
negroes and return to the skirts of the Great Des- 
ert, Park felt that his fate was drawing to a crisis ; 
and at this juncture circumstances occurred which 
produced an unexpected change in his favour. 
When the war between Kaarta and Bambarra had 
broken out, many of the subjects of the former state 
had deserted their sovereign and retired into Lud- 
amar ; in the language of King Daisy's procla- 
mation, " they had broken the key of their huts, 
and could never after enter the door." Dreading y 
his resentment, as the Moors were about to retire 
to the North, they offered to treat with Ali for two 
hundred horsemen, to assist them in humbling their 
sovereign ; and Ali, thinking that the treaty would 
afford a good opportunity of extorting money, sent 
his son to them at Jarra, and prepared to follow in 
person. 

To be permitted to accompany Ali was the ob- 
ject of Park, who had little doubt of escaping from 
Jarra if he could once get there. He preferred his 
request to Queen Fatima, and fortunately moving 
her compassion, was told that in a few days he 
should be at liberty to depart. This time the 
promise was not broken. 



60 park's departure from 3UBAKER, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Departure of Park from Bubaker. — All's Detention of his Boy, 
Demba. — His Grief and Indignation. — His Flight from Jarra 
with the Townspeople. — His Escape from a Party of Moors 
at Queira. — His Treatment by another Party.— His Joy at his 
DeUverance. — His Sufferings from Thirst in the Wilderness. — 
His Fainting upon the Sand.— Rehef afforded him by a fall of 
Rain. — A narrow Escape.— Charity of an old Woman towards 
him. — His continued Risks. — His Arrival at Waiora beyond the 
reach of the Moors. — His Journey to Sego, and Discovery of 
the Niger. 

[1796.] 

Early on the morning of the 26th of May, Park 
set out from the camp of Bubaker, accompanied by 
his two attendants, Johnson and Demba, and a 
number of Moorish horsemen. His horse, with 
the saddle and bridle, had been sent to him by All's 
order the preceding evening ; and a part of his 
apparel had been returned to him by Queen Fati- 
ma, " with much grace and civility," when he went 
to take leave of her. His prospects, though still 
clouded, were beginning to brighten ; but in the 
course of this journey to Jarra he was made bit- 
terly to feel that he was yet within the tyrant's 
power. The party had passed the night of the 
26th and the whole of the 27th at a watering-place 
in the woods. On the morning of the 28th, the 
Moors saddled their horses, and All's chief slave 
ordered Park to get in readiness. In a Httle time 
the same messenger returned, and, taking the boy. 



ANOTHER INSTANCE OF ALl's TYRANNY. 87 

Demba, by the shoulder, told him in the Mandingo 
language, that " Ali was to be his master in future ;" 
and then, turning to Park, said, " The business is 
settled at last ; the boy, and everything but your 
horse, goes back to Bubaker, but you may take 
the old fool (meaning Johnson, the interpreter) 
with you to Jarra." 

" I made him no answer," says Park ; '' but be- 
ing shocked beyond description at the idea of lo- 
sing the poor boy, I hastened to Ali, who was at 
breakfast before his tent, surrounded by many of 
his courtiers. I told him (perhaps in rather too 
passionate a strain) that, whatever imprudence I 
had been guilty of in coming into his country, I 
thought I had been sufficiently punished for it, by 
being so long detained, and then plundered of all 
my little property ; which, however, gave me no 
uneasiness when compared with what he had just 
now done to me. I observed that the boy, whom 
he had just now seized upon, was not a slave^ and 
had been accused of no offence : he was, indeed 
one of my attendants, and his faithful services in 
that station had procured him his freedom. His 
fidelity and attachment had made him follow me 
into my present situation ; and, as he looked up to 
me for protection, I could not see him deprived of 
his liberty without remonstrating against such an 
act as the height of cruelty and injustice. Ali 
made no reply, but, with a haughty air and malig- 
nant smile, told his interpreter that, if I did not 
mount my horse immediately, he would send me 
back likewise. There is something in the frown 
of a tyrant which rouses the m.ost secret emotions 
of the heart. I could not suppress my feelings, 



88 DUPLICITY OF ALL 

and, for once, entertained an indignant wish to rid 
the world of such a monster." 

On reaching Jarra, Park endeavoured, through 
the agency of his old acquaintance. Daman Jum- 
raa, to recover the boy, offering a bill upon Dr. 
Laidley for the value of two slaves. AU refused 
the offer, as he considered the boy to be Park's 
principal interpreter ; but he told Daman that he 
himself might have the lad thereafter at the com. 
mon price of a slave, which Daman agreed to pay 
for him whenever Ali should send him to Jarra. 

On the 8th of June Ali returned to the camp of 
Bubaker, leaving permission for Park to remain at 
Jarra till he came back. This was "joyful news" 
to our unfortunate traveller, who now conceived 
serious hopes of effecting his escape ; and the 
course of events favoured his design. Intelligence 
was brought to Jarra that King Daisy, the sover- 
eign of Kaarta, having heard of the schemes of his 
rebellious subjects, was about to march upon that 
town. The fugitive Kaartans therefore applied to 
Ali for the 200 horsemen which he had agreed to 
lend them : but Ali, having received payment be- 
forehand, very coolly told them that his cavalry 
were otherwise employed. The Kaartans then, 
alone, advanced against their sovereign ; but, find, 
ing him too strong, returned to Jarra after a little 
plundering. Shortly afterward, on the 26th of 
June, news was brought that King Daisy would be 
in that town on the ensuing day ; and the inhabi- 
tants immediately prepared for quitting it as soon 
as posssible. 

In the forenoon of the 26th, the sentinels station. 
ed in advance announced King Daisy's approajch. 



park's escape from jarra. 89 

" The terror of the townspeople on this occasion," 
says Park, " is not easily to be described. Indeed, 
the screams of the women and children, and the 
great hurry and confusion that everywhere prevail- 
ed, made one suspect that the Kaartans had already 
entered the town; and although I had every rea- 
son to be pleased with Daisy's behaviour to me 
when I was at Kemmoo, I had no wish to expose 
myself to the mercy of his army, who might, in 
the general confusion, mistake me for a Moor. I 
therefore mounted my horse, and, taking a large 
bag of corn before me, rode slowly along with the 
townspeople until we reached the foot of a rocky 
hill, where I dismounted, and drove my horse up 
before me. When I had reached the summit I sat 
down, and, having a full view of the town and the 
neighbouring country, could not help lamenting the 
situation of the poor inhabitants, who were throng- 
ing after me, driving their sheep, cows, goats, &c., 
and carrying a scanty portion of provisions and 
clothes. There was a great noise and crying 
everywhere upon the road, for many aged people 
and children were unable to walk ; and these, with 
the sick, were obliged to be carried, otherwise they 
must have been left to certain destruction." 

The route which Park followed, with the inhabi- 
tants of Jarra in their flight, was to the east, or 
towards Bambarra, in continuation of his journey 
to the Niger. On the 1st July, as he was resting 
at Queira to recruit his horse, Ali's chief slave and 
four Moors arrived, and took up their lodging at 
the dooty's house. Through the agency of his in- 
terpreter, Johnson (whom he had overtaken, flying 
from Jarra with Daman Jumma), he learned from 



90 A CRISIS. 

their conversation that they had been sent to take 
him back to Bubaker. In the evening, two of the 
Moors went privately to look at his horse ; one of 
them proposed to take it to the dooty's hut, but the 
other observed that the precaution was unnecessa- 
ry, as the owner never could escape on such an 
animal. They then inquired where he slept, and 
returned. 

" All this," says Park, " was like a stroke of 
thunder to me, for I dreaded nothing so much as 
confinement again among the Moors." He resolv- 
ed to set off at once, and tried, but without success, 
to persuade Johnson to accompany him. In the 
night he got ready his clothes, which consisted oi 
two shirts, two pairs of trousers, two pocket-hand- 
kerchiefs, an upper and under waistcoat, and a 
pair of half boots. At daybreak, Johnson, who 
had been listening to the Moors all night, came 
and whispered to him that they were asleep. 
" The awful crisis," he says, " was now arrived, 
when I was again either to taste the blessing of 
freedom, or languish out my days in captivity. A 
cold sweat moistened my forehead as I thought on 
the dreadful alternative, and reflected that, one way 
or the other, my fate must be decided in the course 
of the ensuing day. But to deliberate was to lose 
the only chance of escaping. So, taking up my 
bundle, I stepped gently over the negroes, who were 
sleeping in the open air, and, having mounted my 
horse, I bade Johnson farewell, desiring him to 
take particular care of the papers I had intrusted 
him with, and inform my friends in Gambia that 
he had left me in good health on my way to Bam- 
barra." 



park's ill treatment by the moors. 91 

At a short distance from the town he heard 
somebody halloo behind him, and, looking back, he 
saw three Moors coming after him at full speed. 
Knowing escape to be impracticable, he turned to 
meet them, and received the dreaded intimation that 
he must go back to Ali. Despair had almost be- 
numbed his faculties, and he followed his captors 
with apparent unconcern. After riding some dis- 
tance, he was ordered to untie his bundle and show 
the contents ; there was nothing worth taking but 
his cloak, which one of the marauders wrapped 
about himself. This cloak, however, was greatly 
needed by our unfortunate traveller, to shelter 
him from the rains by day and the moschetoes 
by night ; and he earnestly begged to have it re- 
turned. But the Moors then rode off, telling him 
that he must proceed no farther with them ; a 
pleasing injunction, even in such distress. 

Congratulating himself upon having escaped 
with his life. Park turned his horse's head once 
more towards the east, and, soon regaining the 
path from which he had been taken, entered upon 
the desolate wilderness which separates the king- 
doms of Kaarta and Ludamar. ** It is impossible," 
he says, " to describe the joy that arose in my mind 
when I looked around and concluded that I was 
out of danger. I felt like one recovered from 
sickness ; I breathed freer ; I found unusual light- 
ness in my limbs ; even the desert looked pleas- 
ant ; and I dreaded nothing so much as falling in 
with some wandering parties of Moors, who might 
convey me back to the land of thieves and murder- 
ers from which I had just escaped.'/ 

But he soon became sensible thai his situation 
H 



92 park's sufferings in the desert 

was, in reality, deplorable ; not a single bead, nor 
any other article of value, wherewith he might 
purchase food, remained in his possession, and he 
was crossing a sandy wilderness without water, 
under an African sun in July. A little after noon 
he became faint with thirst, and chmbed a tree in 
the hope of descrying some sign of a human hab- 
itation ; but all around him were hillocks of white 
sand and thick underwood. In the afternoon he 
came upon a large herd of goats, tended by two 
Moorish boys, who showed him their empty skins, 
and told him they could find no water. His thirst 
now became insufferable ; his mouth and throat 
were parched and inflamed ; to relieve the burn- 
ing pain he chewed the leaves of different shrubs, 
but found them all bitter, and of no service to him. 
A little before sunset he cHmbed a high tree, and 
cast a melancholy look over the barren wilderness ; 
the same dismal uniformity of shrubs and sand 
everywhere presented itself, and the horizon was 
as level and uninterrupted as that of the sea. 

" Descending from the tree," he says, " I found 
my horse devouring the stubble and brushwood 
with great avidity ; and as I was now too faint to 
attempt walking, and my horse too fatigued to car- 
ry me, I thought it but an act of humanity, and 
perhaps the last I should have it in my power to 
perform, to take off his bridle and let him shift for 
himself, in doing which, I was suddenly affected 
with sickness and giddiness, and, falling upon the 
sand, felt as if the hour of death was fast approach- 
ing, * Here then,' thought I, ' after a short but in- 
effectual struggle, terminate all my hopes of being 
useful in my day and generation. Here must my 



FROM THIRST. 93 

short span of life come to an end.' I cast (as I 
believed) a last look on the surrounding scene, and 
while I reflected on the awful change that was 
about to take place, this world and its enjoyments 
seemed to vanish from my recollection. Nature, 
however, at length resumed its functions ; and on 
recovering my senses, I found myself stretched 
upon the sand, with the bridle still in my hand, and 
the sun just sinking behind the trees. I now sum- 
moned all my resolution, and determined to make 
another effort to prolong my existence." 

The evening was cool ; and in about an hour 
he perceived lightning in the northeast ; " a de- 
lightful sign, for it promised rain." In less than 
another hour he heard the wind roaring among the 
bushes, and had already opened his mouth to re- 
ceive the refreshing drops which he expected, when 
a cloud of sand was driven forcibly against him, 
and he was obliged to mount his horse and stop 
under a bush to avoid being suffocated. Resu- 
ming his journey, he beheld, about ten o'clock, 
some very vivid flashes of lightning, which were 
followed by a few heavy drops of rain ; in a lit- 
tle time the sand ceased to fly, and alighting, he 
spread out all his clean clothes. For more than 
an hour it rained plentifully, " and I quenched my 
thirst," he says, '* by wringing and sucking my 
clothes." 

The night was very dark ; but, till past midnight, 
the flashes of lightning enabled him to direct his 
course by the compass. He was then under the 
necessity of groping along, " to the no small dan- 
ger of his hands and eyes." About two o'clock 
his horse started, and, looking round, he saw a light 



94 ** HEAVENLY MUSIC." 

at a short distance among the trees. Advancing 
cautiously, he heard, by the lowing of the cattle 
and the clamorous tongues of the herdsmen, that 
it was a watering-place, belonging most likely to 
the Moors. " Delightful," he says, " as the sound 
of the human voice was to me, I resolved once more 
to strike into the woods, and rather run the risk of 
perishing of hunger than trust myself again in 
their hands ; but being still thirsty, and dreading 
the approach of the burning day, I thought it pru- 
dent to search for the wells, which I expected to 
find at no great distance. In this pursuit, I inad- 
vertently approached so near to one of the tents, 
as to be perceived by a woman, who immediately 
screamed out. Two people came running to her 
assistance from some of the neighbourinor tents, 
and passed so very near to me that I thought 
I was discovered, and hastened again into the 
woods." 

A mile farther on, he heard a loud and confused 
noise on his right ; it proved to be the croaking of 
frogs ; "heavenly music," as he styles it, to his ears. 
Following the sound, he reached at daybreak some 
shallow muddy pools, so full of frogs that it was 
difficult to discern the water ; to keep the reptiles 
quiet till his horse had drunk, he was obliged to 
beat the water with a branch. When he had 
quenched his thirst he climbed a tree, and saw a 
pillar of smoke about twelve or fourteen miles dis- 
tant, in the direction of his journey. Proceeding 
towards it, he reached about eleven o'clock a Fou- 
lah village, called Sherillah, belonging to his dread- 
ed oppressor, Ali. He rode up to the dooty's 
house, and was refused both shelter and food. 



CHARITY OF AN OLD WOMAN. 95 

"Knowing that in Africa, as well as in Europe, 
hospitality does not always prefer the highest 
dwellings," he went towards some low, scattered 
huts without the walls. At the door of one of 
these humble dwellings sat an old, motherly-look- 
ing woman, spinning cotton. " I made signs to 
her," says Park, " that I was hungry, and inquired 
if she had any victuals with her in the hut. She 
immediately laid down her distaff, and desired me, 
in Arabic, to come in. When I had seated myself 
upon the floor, she set before me a dish of kous- 
kous, that had been left the preceding night, of 
which I made a tolerable meal ; and, in return for 
this kindness, I gave her one of my pocket handker» 
chiefs, begging, at the same time, a little corn for 
my horse, which she readily brought me. Over- 
come with joy at this unexpected deliverance, I 
lifted my eyes to heaven, and while my heart 
swelled with gratitude, I returned thanks to that 
gracious and bountiful Being, whose power had 
supported me through so many dangers, and had , 
now spread for me a table in the wilderness." 

While his horse was feeding he discovered that 
some of the men of the place wished to seize him 
and take him back to Ali, probably in the hope of 
getting a reward ; so he departed without delay. 
On the following day he came to a watering-place, 
where a shepherd entertained him on a dish of boil- 
ed dates ; and where some children cried, and their 
mother sprang off with them " like a greyhound" 
as soon as the Nazarant^ was announced. As he 
was continuing his journey in the evening, he 

* Nazarene, or Christian. 



96 ARRIVAL AT, AND DEPARTURE FROM, WAIORA. 

heard some people coming from the southward, and 
thought it prudent to hide himself among some 
thick bushes. " As these thickets," he says, " are 
generally full of wild beasts, I found my situation 
rather unpleasant : sitting in the dark, holding my 
horse by the nose with both hands to prevent him 
from neighing, and equally afraid of the natives 
without and the wild beasts within. My fears, 
however, were soon dissipated, for the people, after 
looking round the thicket and perceiving nothing, 
went away ; and I hastened to the more open parts 
of the wood, where I pursued my journey E.S.E. 
until past midnight, when the joyful cry of frogs 
induced me once more to deviate a little from my 
route in order to quench my thirst." 

About ten o'clock on the following day, being 
the 5th of July, he reached the negro town of 
Waiora, which was then tributary to Mansong, the 
king of Bambarra, though properly belonging to 
Kaarta. As he was now in security from the 
Moors, he resolved to rest at this place, and recov- 
er, in some degree, from the excessive fatigue 
which he had suffered during his three days' jour- 
ney across the wilderness. 

Leaving Waiora at dayhght on the 6th of July, 
Park reached the town of Dingyee about noon, 
where an old Foulah gave him shelter, and the 
dooty sent him food. On the following morning, 
as he was about to depart, his landlord begged for 
a lock of his hair ; having been told that white 
men's hair made a saphie,* which would impart to 
the possessor all the knowledge of white men. " I 

* See page 35. 



ARRIVAL AT, AND DEPARTURE FROM, Vv^ASSIBOO. 97 

had never before heard," says Park, " of so simple 
a mode of education, but instantly complied with 
the request ; and my landlord's thirst for knowl- 
edge was such, that, with cutting and pulling, he 
cropped one side of my head closely, and would 
have done the same with the other had I not sig- 
nified my disapprobation by putting on my hat, and 
assuring him that I wished to preserve some of 
this precious merchandise for a future occasion." 
About noon on the 7th he reached the small 
town of Wassiboo, where he was obliged to stop 
till an opportunity should offer of procuring a guide 
to the next town, Salile, which was distant a very 
long days' journey, through woods without any 
beaten path. His stay lasted four days, during 
which he amused himself with going to the fields 
with the dooty's family to plant corn. 

On the morning of the 12th he departed from 
Wassiboo, with eight of the fugitive Kaartans whose 
rebellion against their sovereign had been the in- 
direct cause of his escape from Jarra. These 
men had arrived the evening before, having found 
it impossible to live under the tyrannical gov- 
ernment of the Moors, and were now going to 
transfer their allegiance to the King of Bambarra. 
Park travelled in company with them till the mid- 
dle of the 19th, when his horse was too fatigued to 
enable him to keep up with them. On the follow- 
ing day, however, he fell in with two negroes, 
whose company was acceptable to him. 

He had now arrived within a short distance of 
Sego. the capital of Bambarra ; and as he passed 
through several large villages in his approach to 
it, he became the subject'of ^uch merriment to 



98 TARE REACHES THE NIGER. 

the inhabitants, who laughed heartily at his ap- 
pearance, and especially at his driving his horse 
before him. " He has been at Mecca," said one ; 
" you may see that by his clothes ;" another asked 
him if his horse was sick ; while a third express- 
ed a wish to purchase it ; " so that, I beheve," to 
use his own words, " the very slaves were ashamed 
to be seen in my company." But he was now 
amply rewarded for his sufferings in receiving the 
gratifying intelligence that, early on the next day, 
he would see the long-sought Niger, which the ne- 
groes called Joliba, or the Great Water. At eight 
o'clock he saw the smoke over Sego. 

" As we approached the town," he says, " I was 
fortunate enough to overtake the fugitive Kaartans, 
to whose kindness I had been so much indebted in 
my journey through Bambarra. They readily 
agreed to introduce me to the king ; and we rode 
together through some marshy ground, where, as 1 
was anxiously looking round for the river, one of 
them called out, ' Geo ajilf (see the water) ; and 
looking forward, I saw with infinite pleasure the 
great object of my mission, the long-sought and ma- 
jestic Niger, glittering to the morning sun, as broad 
as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slow- 
ly /o the eastward. I hastened to the brink, and, 
having drank of the water, lifted up my fervent 
thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of all things 
for having thus far crowned my endeavours with 
success." 



THE CITY OF SEGO. 99 



CHAPTER IX. 

The City of Sego.— Conduct of the King of Bainbarra towards 
Park. — The Traveller's Distress, and the Kindness of a Ne- 
gro Woman towards him. — The King's Preseift to him.— His 
Progress Eastward. — His narrow Escape from a Lion. — His 
Arrival at Silla. — His Resolution not to proceed farther. 

[1796.] 

Park had accomplished one of the great objects 
of his expedition, in penetrating to the Niger, and 
it now became his design to follow the course of 
that river until he should reach the far-famed city 
of Timbuctoo. For this purpose he was desirous 
of an interview with the King of Bambarra, and 
as the royal residence at Sego was upon the south- 
ern side of the river, it was necessary for him to 
cross it. 

He waited two hours at the ferry in vain. There 
were three different places of embarcation, and 
the ferrymen were very diligent and expeditious; 
but there was a crowd of people passing over, and 
he sat down upon the bank of the river till an op- 
portunity should offer. He describes the city of 
Sego as consisting, properly speaking, of four 
towns, two on the north bank of the Niger, called 
Sego Korro and Sego Boo ; and two on the south- 
ern bank, called Sego Soo Korro and Sego See 
Korro. The houses were built of clay, of a square 
form, with flat roofs ; and some of them had two 
•stories, and many were whitewashed. The num- 



100 park's forlorn situation. 

ber of inhabitants he estimates at 30,000. " The 
view of this extensive city," he says, " the numer- 
ous canoes upon the river, the crowded population, 
and the cultivated state of the surrounding coun- 
try, formed altogether a prospect of civilization and 
magnificence which I little expected to find in the 
bosom of Africa." 

While Park was waiting to cross the river, the 
people who*liad crossed carried information to the 
king that a white man was waiting for a passage, 
and coming to see him. One of the chief men was 
directly sent over to tell our traveller that he must 
not presume to cross till he received the royal per- 
mission ; and the messenger therefore advised him 
to lodge for the night at a neighbouring village. 
When Park reached this village, he found that no 
one would give him shelter. " I was regarded," 
he says, " with astonishment and fear, and was 
obliged to sit all day without victuals in the shade 
of a tree ; and the night threatened to be very un- 
comfortable, for the wind rose, and there was great 
appearance of a heavy rain ; and the wild beasts 
are so very numerous in the neighbourhood, that I 
should have been under- the necessity of climbing 
up the tree and resting among the branches." 
But from this forlorn expedient he was happily 
saved by the humanity of a poor woman, whose 
kindness and benevolence towards him he has re- 
corded in touching language. 

" About sunset," he says, " as I was preparing 
to pass the night in this manner, and had turned 
my horse loose that he might graze at hberty, a 
woman, returning from the labours of the field, 
stopped to observe me ; and, perceiving that I was * 
weary and dejected, inquhec into my situation, 



J 



tJENEVOLEJNCE OF A NEGPtO WOMAN. IQl 

which I briefly explained to her ; whereupon, with 
looks of great compassion, she took up my saddle 
and bridle, and told me to follow her. Finding 
that I was very hungry, she said that she would 
procure me something to eat ; she accordingly 
went out, and returned in a short time with a very 
fine fish, which, having caused to be half broiled 
upon some embers, she gave me some supper. 
The rites of hospitality being thus performed to- 
wards a stranger in distress, my worthy benefac- 
tress (pointing to the mat, and telling me I might 
sleep there without apprehension) called to the fe- 
male part of her family, who had stood gazing at me ' V^^^ 
all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume their C< ' 
task of spinning cotton, in which they continued to 
employ themselves great part of the night. They 
lightened their labour by songs, one of which was 
composed extempore ; for I was myself the subject 
of it. It was sung by one of the young women, 
the rest joining in a sort of chorus. The air was 
sweet and plaintive, and the words literally trans- 
lated were these : ' The winds roared, and the 
rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, 
came and sat under our tree. He has no mother 
to bring him milk ; no wife to grind his corn.' 
Chorus, ' Let us pity the white man ; no mother has 
he,' &c. Trifling as this recital may appear to 
the reader, to a person in my situation the cir- 
cumstance was affecting in the highest degree. I 
was oppressed with such unexpected kindness, 
and sleep fled from my eyes. In the morning 1 
presented my compassionate landlady with two of 
the four brass buttons which remained on nay waist, 
coat, the only recompense I could make her,'* 



102 OBSTACLES TO PARK's PROGRESS. 

After Park had been two days at this village, a 
messenger arrived from King Mansong, announcing 
the monarch's pleasure that he should depart forth- 
with from the vicinity of Sego, and presenting him 
with a bag of five thousand kowries,* as " Man- 
song wished to relieve a white man in distress ;" 
the messenger added, that he had orders, if Park's 
intentions were really to proceed to Jenne, to guide 
him as far as Sansanding. Our traveller was at 
first puzzled to account for this behaviour of the 
king ; he had afterward, however, reason to believe 
that Mansong would have admitted him to an inter- 
view at Sego, but was apprehensive of not being 
able to protect him against the blind and inveterate 
malice of the Moorish inhabitants. 

His new guide spoke strongly to him of the dan- 
gers which he would incur in advancing farther to 
the eastward ; telling him that Jenne, though nom- 
inally a part of the Bambarran dominions, was in 
fact a city of the Moors ; that the places beyond it 
were in a still greater degree under their influence ; 
and that Timbuctoo, " the great object of his 
search," was altogether in the possession of that 
savage and merciless people, who allowed no Chris- 
tian to live thereof But Park's enterprise was of 

* These are small shells, which pass current as money in the 
interior of Africa. Park reckoned two hundred and fifty of 
them as equal to one shilling sterling: where provisions were 
cheap, one hundred would purchase a day's food for himself and 
corn for his horse. 

t Park was afterward told by a venerable old negro, that 
when he first visited Timbuctoo, he took up lodgings at a sort 
of public inn, the landlord of which, when he conducted him 
into his hut, spread a mat upon the floor and laid a rope upon it, 
saying, " If you are a Mussulman, you are my friend, sit down ; 
but if you are a Kafir, you are my slave, and with this rope I 
will lead you to market." 



A VEGETABLE BUTTER. 103 

a remarkably enduring character ; " I had now ad- 
vanced," he says, " too far to think of returning to 
the westward on such vague and uncertain infor- 
mation, and determined to proceed." 

On the evening of the 24*th he reached Sansan- 
ding, having passed on the way a large town, call- 
ed Kabba, situated in the midst of a beautiful and- 
highly cultivated country, " having a greater re- 
semblance to the centre of England than to what 
he should have supposed had been the middle of'SJ 
Africa." The people were everywhere employed 
in collecting the fruit of the shea trees, from the 
kernels of which they prepare a vegetable butter, 
" whiter, finer, and, to my taste," says Park, " of a 
richer flavour than the best butter I ever tast- 
ed made from cow's milk." At Sansanding the 
Moors insisted upon his repeating the Mohammed- 
an prayers, and would have forcibly carried him to 
the mosque for that purpose if his landlord had not 
interposed in his behalf, declaring that he was the 
king's stranger, and must not be ill-treated. About 
midnight, when the Moors had left him, his land- 
lord paid him a visit, and with much earnestness 
begged for a saphie. " If a Moor's saphie is good," 
said the hospitable old man, " a white man's must 
needs be better." Park readily furnished one ; 
" possessed," to use his own expression, " of all the 
virtues he could concentrate, for it contained the 
Lord's prayer." The pen with which it was writ- 
ten was made of a reed, a little charcoal and gum- 
water made a very tolerable ink, and a thin board 
answered the purpose of paper. 

From Sansanding he continued his course along 
the northern side of the river at some little distance 



104 NARROW ESCAPE FROM A 1 [ON. 

from its banks. On the 28th of July, as he was 
riding with his guide towards Modiboo, he had to 
pass through a district very much infested with 
lions. Here he saw a large animal of the camel- 
opard kind. Shortly afterward, in crossing a large 
open plain, where there were a few scattered bush- 
es, his guide, who was a little way before him, 
wheeled his horse round in a moment, calling out 
something in the Foulah language. " I inquired, 
in Mandingo," says Park, " what he meant : ' Wara 
hilli lilW (a very large lion), said he, and made 
signs for me to ride away. But my horse was too 
fatigued, so we rode slowly past the bush, from 
which the animal had given us alarm. Not see- 
ing anything myself, however, I thought my guide 
had been mistaken, when the Foulah suddenly put 
his hand to his mouth, exclaiming, ' Soubah an Al. 
lahi /' (God preserve us !) and, to my great surprise, 
I then perceived a great red lion at a short distance 
from the bush, with his head couched between his 
fore-paws. I expected he would instantly spring 
at me, and I instinctively pulled my feet from my 
stirrups to throw myself on the ground, that my 
horse might become the victim rather than myself. 
But it is probable the lion was not hungry ; for he 
quietly suffered us to pass, though we were fairly 
within his reach. My eyes were so riveted upon 
this sovereign of the beasts, that I found it impossi- 
ble to remove them, until we were at a considera- 
ble distance." 

In the evening he arrived at Modiboo, a delight- 
ful village on the banks of the Niger, commanding 
a view of the river for many miles, both to the east 
and to the west. " The small green islands (the 



PARKAS HORSE GIVES OUT. 105 

peaceful retreat of some industrious Foulahs, whose 
cattle are here secure from the depreciations of wild 
beasts), and the majestic breadth of the river, which 
is here much larger than at Sego, render the situ- 
ation one of the most enchanting in the world." 
On the following morning, as he journeyed towards 
Kea, his horse fell ; and not all the exertions of him- 
self and his guide could place the poor animal on 
his legs again. " I sat down for some time," says 
ParK, " beside this wayworn associate of my ad- 
ventures, but, finding him still unable to rise, I took 
off the saddle and bridle, and placed a quantity of 
grass before him, I surveyed the poor animal as 
he lay panting on the ground with sympathetic emo- 
tion ; for I could not suppress the sad apprehension 
that I should myself, in a short time, lie down and 
perish in the same manner, of fatigue and hunger. 
With this foreboding I left my poor horse, and with 
great reluctance followed my guide on foot along 
the banks of the river until about noon, when we 
reached Kea, which I found to be nothing mori^^ |ji^ 
than a small fishing village." '^^ ' 

From Kea he was conveyed down the river in a 
fishing canoe as far as Moorzan, on the northern 
bank, whence he crossed over to the large town of 
Silla on the opposite side. Here he remained un- 
der a tree, surrounded by hundreds of people, till 
dark, when he was permitted, after much entreaty, 
to enter the dooty's haloon,^ His lodging, however, 
was very damp, and during the night he had a smart 
paroxysm of fever. In this distressing situation he 
came to the resolution of not proceeding farther 
eastward. 

* A room in which strangers are commonly lodged. 



106 RESOLVES TO PROCEED NO FARTHER EASTWARD. 

« Worn down by sickness, exhausted with hunger 
and fatigue, half naked, and without any article of 
value by which 1 might procure provisions, clothes, 
or lodgings, I began to reflect seriously on my sit- 
uation. I was now convinced, by painful experi- 
ence, that the obstacles to my farther progress were 
insurmountable ; the tropical rains were already 
set in with all their violence ; the rice-grounds and 
swamps were everywhere overflowed, and, in a few 
days more, travelling of every kind, unless by wa- 
ter, would be completely obstructed. The kowries 
which remained of the King of Bambarra's present 
were not sufficient to enable me to hire a canoe for 
any great distance ; and I had but little hopes of 
subsisting by charity in a country where the Moors 
have such influence. But, above all, I perceived 
that I was advancing more and more within the 
power of those merciless fanatics ; and from my 
reception both at Sego and Sansanding, I was ap- 
prehensive that, in attempting to reach even Jenne 
(unless under the protection of some man of con- 
sequence among them, which I had no means of 
obtaining), I should sacrifice my life to no purpose ; 
for my discoveries would perish with me. The 
prospect either way was gloomye In returning to 
the Gambia, a journey on foot of many hundred 
miles presented itself to my contemplation, through 
regions and countries unknown. Nevertheless, 
this seemed to be the only alternative, for I saw 
inevitable destruction in attempting to proceed to 
the eastward. With this conviction on my mind, 
I hope my readers will acknowledge that I did right 
in going no farther. I had made every effort to 
execute my mission in its fullest extent which pru- 



PARK RETURJNS WESTWARD. 107 

dence could justify. Had there been the most dis- 
tant prospect of a successful termination, neither 
the unavoidable hardships of the journey, nor the 
dangers of a second captivity, should have forced 
me to desist. This, however, necessity compelled 
me to do ; and, whatever may be the opinion of 
my general readers on this point, it affords me in- 
expressible satisfaction, that my honourable employ- 
ers have been pleased, since my return, to express 
their full approbation of my conduct." 



CHAPTER X. 

Park's Departure from Silla on his Return. — Difficulties of his 
Situation.— His Resolution to trace the Niger to the West- 
ward. — Dangers and Hardships of his Journey. — His Escape 
from a Lion. — His Saphies, or written Charms. — His Arrival 
at Bammakoo, and Departure from the Niger. — His Ill-treat- 
ment by Banditti. — His Consolation in Affliction. — Scarcity 
of Provisions, and its dreadful Effects. — A Night Adventure. 
— His arrival at Kamalia, and Determination to stop there. 

[1796.] 

Park began to return westward on the 30th of 
July, retracing his steps along the northern bank of 
the river towards Sego. At Modiboo he recovered 
his horse. He was conversing with the dooty 
there, when he heard a horse neigh in one of the 
huts ; the facetious magistrate asked him, with a 
smile, if he knew who was speaking to him, and 
then informed him that his horse was still alive, and 
somewhat recovered. The progress of our travel 



108 PARK SUSPECTED AS A SPY. 

ler was much impeded by the heavy rains ; at one 
town he was detained three days, as it rained with 
such violence that no person could venture out of 
doors. The country adjacent to the river was so 
deluged, that he was frequently in danger of losing 
the road : he had to wade " across the savannahs 
for miles together, knee-deep in water," and even 
breast-deep across some swamps. As he advan- 
ced, a fresh source of apprehension disclosed itself ; 
reports prevailed that he had come to Bambarra as 
a spy. Every one seemed to shun him, and he was 
informed that King Mansong had sent out people to 
apprehend him. 

This intelligence made him resolve to avoid Se- 
go, but it also perplexed him much as to his fu- 
ture course. He says that he sometimes had 
thouo^hts of swimminor his horse across the Niger, 
and going to the southward for Cape Coast ;* but 
reflecting that he had ten days to travel before he 
reached Kong, and afterward an extensive coun- 
try to traverse, inhabited by various nations, with 
whose language and manners he was totally un- 
acquainted, he relinquished that scheme, and judg- 
ed that he should better answer the purpose of hia 
mission by proceeding to the westward along the 
Niger, endeavouring to ascertain how far the rivei 
was navigable in that direction. 

On the 13th of August he passed Sego, having 
made a detour to avoid it ; and instead of here quit- 
ting the Niger, and striking off into the route by 
which he had advanced to it, he continued his 
course up the river along its northern bank. In 
his progress he encountered dangers and hardships 

* The chief English station on the Gold Coast. 



HIS DANGERS AND HARDSHIPS. 109 

similar to those which he had already experien- 
ced in such abundance, from the natural difficulties 
of the country in this wet season, and from the in- 
hospitality of the people. The Niger had risen to 
such a height as to overflow great part of the flat 
land on both sides, and assume the appearance of 
an extensive lake ; and from the muddiness of the 
water it was difficult to discern its depth. In cross- 
ing one swamp, his horse, being up to the belly in 
water, slipped suddenly into a deep pit, and was al- 
most drowned before his feet could be disengaged 
from the stifl* clay at the bottom. Three several 
times, in the short space of ten days, he had to 
swim over deep creeks of the river with his horse's 
bridle between his teeth ;■ and so full of mud was 
the road, that he speaks of the washing which his 
clothes got from the rain, and the heavy dew in the 
high grass, as " sometimes pleasant, and oftentimes 
necessary." His notes and memoranda were se- 
cured from injury in the crown of.his hat. 

The kowries with which the generosity of King 
Mansong had supplied him, sometimes procured 
him slender accommodation ; yet for three success- 
ive days he subsisted entirely on raw corn. At 
one time he was forced to sit alone under the ben- 
tang tree, exposed to the wind and rain of a violent 
tornado till midnight ; and then he was perm.itted 
to sleep upon some wet grass in the corner of a 
court. On another occasion, the surly inhabitants 
of a small village refused to admit him ; but as 
lions were very numerous in the neighbourhood, 
and he had frequently, in the course of the day, 
observed the impression of their feet on the road, 
he resolved not to procee ^ farther that night. Ac- 



110 PARK TAKEN FOR A MOOR. 

cordingly, having collected some grass for his 
horse, he lay down under a tree by the gate. 

" About ten o'clock," he says, " I heard the hol- 
low roar of a lion at no great distance, and attempt- 
ed to open the gate ; but the people from within 
told me that no person must attempt to open the 
gate without the dooty's permission. I begged 
them to inform the dooty that a lion was approach- 
ing the village, and I hoped he would allow me to 
come within the gate. I waited for an answer to 
this message with great anxiety; for the lion kept 
prowling round the village, and once advanced so 
very near me that I heard him rustling among the 
grass, and climbed the tree for safety. About mid- 
night, the dooty, with some of his people, opened 
the gate and desired me to come in. They were 
convinced, they said, that I was not a Moor ; for 
no Moor ever waited any time at the gate of a vil- 
lage without cursing the inhabitants." 

At the town of Koolikorro, he lodged at the 
house of a merchant who had travelled to many 
places in the Great Desert, but whose knowledge 
of the world had not lessened that superstitious 
confidence in saphies and charms which he had 
imbibed in his earlier years. " When he heard," 
says Park, " that I was a Christian, he immediate- 
ly thought of procuring a saphie ; and for this pur- 
pose brought out his walha, or writing-board, as- 
suring me that he would dress me a supper of rice 
if I would write him a saphie to protect him from 
wicked men. The proposal was of too great con- 
sequence to me to be refused ; I therefore wrote 
the board full, from top to bottom, on both sides ; 
and my landlord, to be certain of having the whole 



HE BECOMES A SAPHIE-WRITER. Ill 

force of the charm, washed the writing from the 
board into a calabash with a little water, and, hav- 
ing said a few prayers over it, drank this powerful 
draught ; after which, lest a single word should es- 
cape, he licked the board till it was quite dry. A 
saphie-writer was a man of too great consequence 
to be long concealed : the important information 
was carried to the dooty, who sent his son with |v ° 
half a sheet of writing-paper, desiring me to write ^ /Li^ 
a naphula saphie (a charm to procure wealth). 
He brought me, as a present, some meal and milk ; 
and when I had finished the saphie, and read it to 
him with an audible voice, he seemed highly satis- 
fied with his bargain, and promised to bring me 
early in the morning some milk for my breakfast. 
When I had finished my supper of rice and salt, I 
laid myself down upon a bullock s hide, and slept 
very quietly until morning, this being the first good 
meal and refreshing sleep that 1 had enjoyed for a 
long time." 

The limit of Park's progress along the Niger, 
towards the westward, or up the river, was the 
town of Bammakoo, near which he passed some 
rapids, of such strength that " it would," he thinks, 
" have been a matter of great difficulty for any Eu- 
ropean boat to have crossed the stream." He 
reached that town on the 23d of August, and there 
became aware of such serious obstructions to his 
farther progress along the Niger that he struck off 
into a new route, which still conveyed him west- 
ward, but at some distance from the river. He 
passed the night of the 24ih at the " romantic vil- 
lasje" of Koomi, and on the following morning de- 
pa^rted for Sibidooloo, in company with two shep- 



112 park's ill-treatment 

herds. But before he reached his destination, an 
adventure befell him which reduced him to a still 
lower stage of misery than he had yet reached. 

" It was about eleven o'clock," he says, " as I 
stopped to drink a Uttle water at a rivulet (my 
companions being about a quarter of a mile before 
me), that I heard some people calling to each other, 
and presently a loud screaming, as from a person 
in great distress. I immediately conjectured that 
a lion had taken one of the shepherds, and mounted 
my horse to have a better view of what had hap- 
pened. The noise, however, ceased, and I rode 
slowly towards the place from whence I thought it 
had proceeded, calling out, but without receiving 
any answer. In a little time, however, I perceived 
one of the shepherds lying among the long grass 
near the road ; and though I could perceive no 
blood upon him, I concluded he was dead. But 
when I came close to him, he whispered me to stop, 
telling me that a party of armed men had seized 
upon his companion, and shot two arrows at him- 
self as he was making his escape. I stopped to 
consider what route to take, and, looking round, 
saw at a little distance a man sitting upon the 
stump of a tree : I distinguished, also, the heads of 
six or seven more sitting among the grass, with 
muskets in their hands. I had no hopes of esca- 
ping, and therefore determined to ride forward to- 
wards them. As I approached them, I was in 
hopes they were elephant-hunters, and, by way of 
opening the conversation, inquired if they had shot 
anything ; but, without returning an answer, one of 
them ordered me to dismount ; and then, as if rec- 
ollecting himself, waved with his hand for me to 



BY BANDITTI. 113 

proceed. I accordingly rode past, and had with 
some difficulty crossed a deep rivulet, when I heard 
somebody * holloa !' and, looking behind, saw those 
I had taken for elephant-hunters running after me, 
and caUing out to me to turn back. I stopped un- 
til they were all come up, when they informed me 
that the King of the Foulahs had sent them on pur- 
pose to bring me, my horse, and everything that 
belonged to me, to Fociadoo ; and that therefore I 
must turn back, and go along with them. Without 
hesitating a moment, I turned round and followed 
them, and we travelled together near a quarter of 
a mile without exchanging a word ; when, coming 
to a dark place in the wood, one of thejn said, in 
the Man dingo language, ' This place will do ;' and 
immediately snatched my hat from my head. 
Though I was by no means free from apprehension, 
yet I resolved to show as kw signs of fear as pos- 
sible, and therefore told them that, unless my hat 
was returned to me, I should proceed no farther. 
But, before I had time to receive an answer, another 
drew his knife, and, seizing upon a metal button 
which remained upon my waistcoat, cut it off and 
put it in his pocket. Their intentions were now 
obvious ; and I thought that the easier they were 
permitted to rob me of everything, the less I had 
to fear. I therefore allowed them to search my 
pockets without resistance, and examine every part 
of my apparel, which they did with the most scru- 
pulous exactness. But observing that I had one 
waistcoat under another, they insisted that I should 
cast them both off; and at last, to make sure work, 
they stripped me quite naked. Even my half- 
boots (though the sole of one of them was tied on to 



114 park's consolation 

my foot with a broken bridle-rein) were minutely 
inspected. While they were examining the plun- 
der, I begged them, with great earnestness, to re- 
turn my pocket compass ; but when I pointed it 
out to them, as it was lying on the ground, one of 
the banditti, thinking I was about to take it up, 
cocked his musket, and swore that he would lay 
me dead upon the spot if I presumed to put a hand 
upon it. After this, some of them went away with 
my horse, and the remainder stood considering 
whether they should leave me quite naked, or allow 
me something to shelter me from the sun. Hu- 
manity at last prevailed : they returned me the 
worst of the two shirts and a pair of trousers ; 
and, as they went away, one of them threw back 
my hat, in the crown of which I kept my memo- 
randums ; and this was probably the reason he did 
not wish to keep it. 

" After they were gone," continues Park, " I sat 
for some time looking around me with amazement 
and terror. Whichever way I turned, nothing ap- 
peared but danger and difficulty. I saw myself in 
the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the 
rainy season, naked and alone, surrounded by sav- 
age animals, and men still more savage. I was 
five hundred miles from the nearest European set- 
tlement. All these circumstances crowded at once 
on my recollection, and I confess that my spirits be- 
gan to fail me. I considered my fate as certain, 
and that I had no alternative but to lie down and 
perish. The influence of religion, however, aided 
and supported me. I reflected that no human pru- 
dence or foresight could possibly have averted my 
present suflTerings. I was indeed a stranger in a 



IN AFFLICTION. 115 

strange land, yet I still was under the protecting 
eye of that Providence who has condescended to 
call himself the stranger's friend. At this moment, 
painful as my reflections were, the extraordinary 
beauty of a small moss in fructification irresistibly 
caught my eye. I mention this to show from what 
trifling circumstances the mind will sometimes de- 
rive consolation ; for though the whole plant was 
not larger than the top of one of my fingers, I 
could not contemplate the delicate conformation of 
its roots, leaves, and capsula without admiration. 
Can that Being, thought I, who planted, watered, 
and brought to perfection, in this obscure part of 
the world, a thing which appears of so small im- 
portance, look with unconcern upon the situation 
and sufferings of creatures formed after his own 
image ? Surely not ! Reflections like these would 
not allow me to despair. I started up, and, disre- 
garding both hunger and fatigue, travelled forward, 
assured that relief was at hand ; and I was not dis- 
appointed." -: . 
In a short time he overtook the two shepherds 
with whom he had left Koomi ; and at sunset he 
entered the town of Sibidooloo, where he met with 
a very kind reception from the manga^* or chief 
man. " Sit down," said the magistrate, taking his 
pipe from his mouth, after having listened to the 
account of the robbery, and tossing up the sleeve 
of his cloak with an indignant air ; " sit down ; you 

•* Mansa usually signifies king-; but in the republican, or, 
rather, oligarchical state of Mandingo, in which Sibidooloo is 
situated, the chief governor of each town is called mansa. 
Park supposes the Mandingoes, already mentioned, to have ori- 
ginally emigrated from this state. 



lid GREAT SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. 

shall have everything restored to you ; I have 
sworn it." And then, turning to an attendant, he 
added, " Give the white man a draught of water ; 
and, with the first light of morning, go over the 
hills and inform the dooty of Bammakoo that a 
poor white man, the. King of Bambarra's stranger, 
has been robbed by the King of Fooladoo's peo- 
ple." 

At Sibidooloo Park remained two days ; he then 
proceeded to Wonda, the mansa requesting him to 
remain there a few days, until he heard some ac- 
count of his horse and clothes. Our traveller was 
very anxious to receive his clothes, as the little rai- 
ment which he had upon him did not protect him 
from the sun by day or from the dews and mosche- 
toes by night. He suffered, too, at this period very 
seriously from sickness ; for his health had been 
greatly declining ever since the commencement of 
the rainy season. As he was sitting naked in the 
shade, while his only shirt, " worn thin like a piece 
of muslin," was drying on a bush, the fever attack- 
ed him with alarming violence ; and, during each 
of the nine days that he remained at Wonda, it 
regularly re4;urned. 

A great scarcity of provisions prevailed at this 
time in the country through which Park was trav- 
elling ; and of the severity with which it pressed 
upon the poor people, he records a melancholy illus- 
tration during his stay at Wonda. Every evening 
he observed five or six women come to the mansa's 
house, and receive each of them a certain quantity 
of corn. " As I knew," says Park, " how valua- 
ble this article was at this juncture, I inquired of the 
mansa whether he maintained those poor women 



CHILDREN EXCHANGED FOR POOD. 117 

from pure bounty? or whether he expected a return 
when the harvest should be gathered in. ' Observe 
that boy,' said he, pointing to a fine child, about five 
years of age ; ' his mother has sold him to me for 
forty days' provision for herself and the rest of her 
family ; 1 have bought another boy in the same -s^^^^ 
manner.' Good God ! thought I, what must a mo- ^ 
ther suffer before she sells her own child ! I could 
not get this melancholy subject out of my mind ; 
and the next night, when the women came for their 
allowance, I desired the boy to point out to me his 
mother, which he did. She was much emaciated, 
but had nothing cruel or savage in her counte- 
nance ; and, when she had received her corn, she 
came and talked to her son with as much cheer ^ ^ 
fulness as if he had been still under her care." f.:qj'^^ 

On the 6th of September our traveller recovered 
his horse and clothes. As the poor animal, being 
reduced to a mere skeleton, would have been use- 
less to him on such roads as he had to journey 
over. Park made a present of him to his landlord, 
who gave him in return a spear, and a leather 
bag for his clothes ; the saddle and bridle he sent 
to the mansa of Sibidooloo. He quitted Wonda 
on the 8th, and travelled with more ease than be- 
fore, "having converted his half boots into san- 
dals." On the 11th he hurt his ankle very much ; 
and on the 17th he was forced to lie down three 
times, "being very faint and sickly," as he as- 
cended a high, rocky hill, over which the road led 
to Mansia. " The mansa of this town,'* says Park, 
" had the character of being very inhospitable ; he, 
however, sent me a little corn for my supper, but 
demanded something in return; and when I assu- ^ 



118 A NIGHT ADVENTURE. 

red him that I had nothing of value in my posses- 
sion, he told me (as if in jest) that my white skin 
would not defend me if I told him Ues. He then 
showed me the hut wherein I was to sleep, but took 
away my spear, saying that it should" be returned 
to me in the morning. This trifling circumstance, 
when joined to the character I had heard of the 
man, made me rather suspicious of him ; and I pri- 
vately desired one of the inhabitants of the place, 
who had a bow and quiver, to sleep in the same hut 
with me. About midnight I heard somebody ap- 
proach the door, and, observing the moonlight 
strike suddenly into the hut, I started up, and saw 
a man stepping cautiously over the threshold. I 
immediately snatched up the negro's bow and quiv- 
er, the rattling of which made the man withdraw ; 
and my companion, looking out, assured me that it 
was the mansa himself, and advised me to keep 
awake until the morning. I closed the door, and 
placed a large piece of wood behind it, and was 
wondering at this unexpected visit, when somebody 
pressed so hard against the door that the negro 
could scarcely keep it shut. But when I called to 
him to open the door, the intruder ran off as be- 
fore," 

Starting at daylight on the 19th, before this in- 
hospitable mansa was awake, Park arrived in the 
afternoon at the small town of Kamalia, and was 
conducted to the house of a bushreen, named Kar- 
fa Taura, who was collecting a coffle of slaves, with 
a view to sell them to the Europeans on the Gam. i 
bia as soon as the rains should be over. Karfa 
was sitting in his baloon, surrounded by several 
Slatees, who proposed to join the coffle. He was 



PARK MEETS WITH A FRIEND IN NEED. 119 

reading to them from an Arabic book ; and he in- 
quired, with a smile, if our traveller understood it. 
Being answered in the negative, he desired one of 
the Slatees to fetch the little curious book, which 
had been brought from the West country. " On 
opening this small volume," says Park, " I was sur- 
prised and delighted to find it our Book of Com^ 
mon Prayer^ and Karfa expressed great joy to hear 
that I could read it ; for some of the Slatees, who 
had seen the Europeans upon the coast, observing 
the colour of my skin (which had now become 
very yellow from sickness), my long beard, rag- 
ged clothes, and extreme poverty, were unwilling 
to admit that I was a white man, and told Karfa 
that they suspected that I was some Arabian in 
disguise. Karfa, however, perceiving that I could 
read this book, had no doubt concerning me ; and 
kindly promised me every assistance in his pow- 
er." 

This benevolent man soon made Park aware of 
the insuperable obstacles to his farther progress, 
alone, at such a season of the year, and recom- 
mended him to stay and accompany the coffle. Our 
traveller pointed out his inability to support himself 
in the mean while. Karfa then looked at him with 
great earnestness, and inquired if he could eat the 
common victuals of the country ; if so, he should 
have plenty of them, and a hut to sleep in until the 
rains were over ; and, on reaching the Gambia, he 
might make what f eturn he thought proper. Park 
asked if the value of one prime slave would be a 
sufficient repayment ; Karfa answered in the affirm. 
a*.ive, and at once ordered a hut to be got ready. 

" Thus," says our traveller, " was I delivered by 



120 pabk's reception at kamalia. 

the friendly care of this benevolent negro from a 
situation truly deplorable. Distress and famine 
pressed hard upon me ; I had before me the gloomy 
wilds of Jallonkadoo, where the traveller sees no 
habitation for five successive days. I had observed 
at a distance the rapid course of the river Kokoro 
I had ahuost marked out the place where I was 
doomed, I thought, to perish, when this friendly ne- 
gro stretched out his hospitable hand for my relief." 



CHAPTER XI. 

Park's Residence at Kamalia. — Description of that Town. — 
Park's Occupation during his Stay there. — Climate and Sea- 
sons of the Countries visited by him. — The Inhabitants, and 
their Rehgious Opinions. — Their Ignorance and Superstition. 
— Manufactures of Leather and Iron. — The Process of smelt- 
ing Iron. 

[1796-1797.] 

Park's stay at Kamalia lasted seven months, 
throughout which he was treated with great kind- 
ness. But in the early part of this period his suf- 
ferings were very severe ; so long as the rains con- 
tinued and the country remained wet, his fever nev- 
er left him ; and even afterward he was for some 
time in so debilitated a condition that he could 
scarcely stand upright. At length, however, he 
found himself in a state of convalescence, " towards 
which," he says, ** the benevolent and simple man. 
ners of the negroes, and the perusal of Karfa's lit 
tie volume, greatly contributed." 



DESCRIPTION OF KAMALIA. 123 

The small town of Kamalia. in which Park thus 
became domesticated for so many months, is situ- 
ated at the foot of some rocky hills, from which the 
inhabitants collect gold in considerable quantities : 
we have given a view of it in the accompanying ^ 
engraving. Park found the Bushreens, or Moham-^*^^^ 
medan part of the population, living apart from the ^/i 
Kafirs, or pagan negroes ; the former having built /// 
their huts in a scattered manner at a short distance 
from the town. There was a place set apart for 
the Mohammedans to perform their devotions in ; . 
they gave to it the name of missura, or mosque ; ^^^-^^ 
but it was, in fact, nothing more than a square piece 
of ground, made level, and surrounded with the 
trunks of trees, and having a small projection to- 
wards the east, where the marraboo, or priest, stood 
when he called the people to prayers. Mosques of 
this construction are very common among the Mo- 
hammedan negroes ; but, as they have neither a 
roof nor walls, they can be used only in fine weath- 
er. When it rains, the ceremonies of devotion are 
performed in the huts. The general arrangement 
of the town will be easily understood from an in- 
spection of the engraving. The reader will per- / 
ceive in the view, on the left hand, a furnace in /* 
active operation; it represents one which, during /a/^ 
Park's stay at Kamalia, was constantly used for the 
smelting of iron ore. Of this branch of African \ 
industry we shall speak hereafter. ^ 

In the middle of December Karfa left Kamalia 
for a month on business ; and during his absence 
our traveller was intrusted to the care of a " good 
old bushreen," named Fankooma, who acted as 
schoolmaster to the young people of Kamalia. Jn ^ 

r^rt'-^ ' ■ 



124 CLIMATE OF THE COUNTRIES 

this interval Park employed himself in collecting 
much valuable information concerning the cUmate 
and productions of this part of Africa ; the habits 
and pursuits of the natives, and the most important 
branches of African commerce. 

Throughout the whole of his journey, Park found 
the climate, in general, extremely hot ; a circum- 
stance not at all surprising, when we consider that 
his route lay between the twelfth and sixteenth 
degrees of latitude, and that no part of the coun- 
.try which he traversed was, properly speaking, 
mountainous. All's camp at Benown was the 
place at which he found the heat most intense and 
oppressive ; how severely it was there felt we have 
already mentioned. In the hilly districts the at- 
mosphere was at all times comparatively cool. 
About the middle of June begin the tornadoes, 
which are violent gusts of wind, accompanied by 
thunder and rain. These usher in what is called 
the rainy season, which continues until the month 
of December, and is marked at its termination, as 
at its commencement, by violent tornadoes. Du- 
ring the period of the rainy season the prevailing 
winds are from the southwest ; after its close, they 
blow from the northeast during the remainder of 
the year. 

The northeast wind, blowing constantly after 
the rainy season, soon produces a wonderful change 
in the face of the country. The grass becomes 
dry and withered, the rivers subside very rapidly, 
and many of the trees shed their leaves. It is 
from the northeast that the harmattan blows ; this 
is a dry and parching wind, accompanied by a thick, 
smoky haze, through which the sun appears of a 



VISITED BY PARK. 125 

dull red colour. This wind, in its progress to- 
wards the countries which Park visited, passes 
over the Sahara or Great Desert, and is said thus 
to acquire so strong an attraction to humidity, 
that it parches up everything exposed to its cur- 
rent. Yet it is reckoned very salutary, particu- 
larly to Europeans, who generally recover their 
health during its continuance. " I experienced," 
says Park, " immediate relief from sickness, both 
at Dr. Laidley's and at Kamalia, during the har- 
mattan. Indeed, the air during the rainy season 
is so loaded with moisture, that clothes, shoes, 
trunks, and everything that is not close to the fire, 
become damp and mouldy ; and the inhabitants 
may be said to live in a sort of vapour-bath. 
But this dry wind braces up the solids which were 
before relaxed, gives a cheerful flow of spirits, and 
is even pleasant to respiration. Its ill effects are, 
that it produces chaps in the lips, and afflicts many 
of the natives with sore eyes." 

The negroes have a practice of setting the 
grass on fire when it is sufficiently dry ; but in 
the Moorish countries this is not allowed, as it is 
upon the withered stubble that the Moors feed their 
cattle until the return of the rains. Park describes 
the burning of the grass in Manding as exhibiting 
a scene of terrific grandeur. " In the middle of 
the night," he says, " I could see the plains and 
mountains, as far as my eye could reach, variega- 
ted with lines of fire ; and the light reflected on the 
sky made the heavens appear in a blaze. In the 
daytime pillars of smoke were seen in every di- 
rection ; while the birds of prey were observed hov- 
ering round the conflagration, and pouncing down 



^ 



126 PRAIRIE BURNING, 

upon the snakes, lizards, and other reptiles which 
attempted to escape from the flames. This annual 
burning is soon followed by a fresh and sweet ver- 
dure, and the country is thereby rendered more 
.^ healthful and pleasant."* 

^J / * In the region of the " Far West," in North America, a vast 
1 / extent of prairie ground is annually overrun by fire, the result 
sometimes of accident, but generally of design. " The Indian," 
says the American traveller, Mr. Keating, " frequently sets the 
prairies on fire, in order to distract the pursuit of his enemies 
by the smoke, or to destroy all trace of his passage ; to keep 
the country open, and thus invite the buffalo to it ; to be able 
to see and chase his game with more facility ; as a means of 
communicatmg intelligence to a distance; with a view to give 
notice to his friends of his approach, or to warn them of the 
presence of an enemy. The traders often burn the prairies with 
the same view." Park represents the burning of the grass in 
Manding as beneficial ; on the other hand, the burning of the 
American prairies is considered by Mr. Keating as " destroying 
all the vegetable matter, and tending to keep the ground in an 
impoverished state." The season of prairie burning is termed 
the "Indian Summer," the practice having originated with the 
Indians. As a parallel to Park's account of the burning of the 
grass in Manding, we quote the following description of an 
" Indian Summer" from a writer upon America. " The season 
called the Indian Summer, and which here commences in Octo- 
ber by a dark, thick, hazy atmosphere, is caused by millions of 
acres, for thousands of miles round, being in a wide-spreading, 
flaming, blazing, smoking fire, rising up through wood and prairie, 
hill and dale, to the tops of low shrubs and high trees, which are 
kindled by a coarse, thick, long prairie grass and dying leaves, 
at every point of the compass, and far beyond the foot of civili- 
zation, darkening the air, heavens, and earth, over the whole 
extent of the northern part to the Southern Continent, from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific ; and, in the neighbourhoods contiguous 
to the all-devouring conflagration, filling the whole horizon with 
yellow, palpable, tangible snnoke, ashes, and vapour, which af- 
fect the eyes of man and beast, and obscure the sun, moon, and 
stars for many days ; or until the winter rains descend to quench 
the fire, and purge the thick, ropy air, which is seen, tasted, 
handled, and felt."* 

* The American reader cannot fail of being amused with this very fan' 
cijul account of the "Indian Summer;" scarcely less fanciful than the 
Indian belief, that they are indebted for this genial season to soft and 



CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS. 127 

Of the population of the countries through which 
he passed, Park says, that, considering the extent 
and fertility of the soil, and the ease with which 
lands are obtained, it cannot be reckoned very 
great. Many extensive and beautiful districts were 
entirely destitute of inhabitants, and, in general, the 
borders of the different kingdoms were either thin- 
ly peopled or quite deserted. The swampy banks 
of the Gambia, the Senegal, and other rivers to- 
wards the coast, being unhealthy, are unfavourable 
to the increase of population. It is, perhaps, on 
account of their superior salubrity that the coun- 
tries of the interior are more thickly peopled than 
the maritime district ; for all the negro nations that 
fell under Park's observation, though divided into a 
number of petty independent states, subsist chiefly 
by the same means, live nearly in the same tem- 
perature, and possess a wonderful similarity of dis- 
position. 

Concerning the character of the African nations 
which Park visited, an opinion may be formed from 
the account of his travels. The most prominent 
defect which he observed in it was an insurmount- 
able propensity to stealing, at least from him ; and 
the reader will hereafter find, that this propensity 
was more fully developed in Park's second journey 
than in his first. As some counterbalance to this 
defect, our traveller notices in high terms the dis- 
interested charity and tender solicitude with which 
many of these poor heathens (from the sovereign 
of Sego to the poor women who received him at 

balmy winds, sent forth, for this especial object, from the court of their 
beneficent god Cantantowwit, whose residence is in the southwest, who 
besiows on them every blessing, and to whom the souls of the brave 
and good go after deatU.— -4ffi. Ed, 



128 RELIGIOUS OPINION'S OF THE Hx.GROES. 

different times into their cottages when he was per- 
ishing of hanger) sympathized with him in his suf- 
ferings, reUeved his distresses, and contributed to 
his safety. To the female part of the population 
' this acknowledgment is more especially rendered. 
Among the men, *' the hardness of avarice in some, 
and the blindness of bigotry in others, had closed 
up the avenues to compassion ; but I do not recol- 
lect," continues Park, " a single instance of hard- 
heartedness towards me in the .women. In all my 
wanderings and wretchedness I found them uni- 
formly kind and compassionate."* 

In the information which Park communicates 
with regard to the religious opinions of the negroes, 
there is little to excite our interest. He tells us 
that, having conversed with all ranks and conditions 
upon the subject of their faith, he can pronounce, 
without the smallest shadow of doubt, that the be- 
lief of one God, and of a future state of reward 
and punishment, is entire and universal among 
them. The painful fact is, however, but too well 
established, that this benighted people are the vic- 
tims of credulity and superstition. The bushreens, 
of course, practise the observances of the Moham- 
medan faith : the only occasion upon which the 
kafirs or pagan natives offer up a prayer to the 
Supreme Being is the first appearance of the new 
moon. They then say a short prayer, which is 
pronounced in a whisper, and the purport of which 
is to give thanks to God for his kindness through- 

* How beautifully does this exemplify what has been said 
by an American writer, that *' The sensibilities and affections 
are the strength of woman's nature ;" that " Feeling is the fa- 
vourite element of her soul ;" that " She has an instinctive sym- 
pathy with the tender, the generous, and the pure." — Am. Ed, 



THEIR IGNORANCE AND SUrERSTITION. 129 

ont the existence of the past moon, and to seek a "%. 
continuance of his favour during that of the new ^ '| 
one. The kafirs look upon the Deity as the crea- 1 
tor and. preserver of all things ; hut, in general, /f 
they consider him as a Being so remote, and of so ~^, 
exalted a nature, that it is idle to imagine that the \ 
feeble supplication of wretched mortals can reverse 
the decrees and change the purposes of unerring 
Wisdom. If they are asked, then, why it is that 
they do offer up a prayer on the appearance of a 
new moon, their answer is, that custom has made 
it necessary ; that they do it because their fathers 
did it before them. " Such," exclaims Park, ^' is 
the blindness of unassisted nature ! The concerns 
of this world, they believe, are committed by the 
Almighty to the superintendence and direction of 
subordinate spirits, over whom they suppose that 
certain magical ceremonies have great influence. 
A white fowl suspended to the branch of a partic- 
ular tree ; a snake's head, or a few handfuls of 
fruit, are offerings which ignorance and supersti- 
tion frequently present to deprecate the wrath or 
to conciliate the favour of these tutelary agents. 
But it is not often that the negroes make their re- 
ligious opinions the subject of conversation : when 
interrogated, in -particular, concerning their ideas 
of a future state, they express themselves with great 
reverence, but endeavour to shorten the discussion / . 
by observing, ' Mo o mo inta alio' (no man knows 
anything about it). They are content, they say, 
to follow the precepts and examples of their fore- 
fathers, through the various vicissitudes of life ; and 
when this vrorld presents no objects of enjoyment 
or of comfort, they seem to look with anxiety to- 



130 MANUFACTURES OF LEATHER AND IRON. 

wards another, which they believe will be better 
suited to their natures, but concerning which they 
are far from indulging vain and delusive conjec- 
tures."* 
h yd i The proficiency of the negroes in the mechanical 
p^';^rts is very limited in the eyes of a European. 
j^' The only manufactures which constitute distinct 
/ land peculiar trades, are those of leather and iron. 
The leather manufacturers, who bear the name of 
karrankea, are to be found in almost every town ; 
and they frequently travel about the country in the 
exercise of their calling. They tan and dress 
leather with very great expedition ; first steeping 
the hide in a mixture of wood-ashes and water, 
until it parts with the hair, and afterward using 
* the pounded leaves of a tree called goo as an as- 
tringent. They strive to render the hide as soft 
and pliant as possible, by rubbing it frequently be- 
tween their hands, and beating it upon a stone. 
The hides of bullocks, being used chiefly for san- 
dals, are not dressed with so much care as the skins 
of sheep and goats, which furnish covers for quiv- 
ers and saphies, sheaths for swords and knives, 
belts, pockets, and a variety of ornamental arti- 
cles. These skins are commonly dyed red or yel- 
low, the colouring matter being obtained from cer. 
tain plants. 

The manufacture of iron is carried on to a con- 
siderable extent in the countries of the interior. 
The negroes of the coast, being chiefly supplied 

* How strongly and universally implanted is the religious priri' 
ciple in man. How true is it, that the human soul everywhere 
" breathes hopes immortal, and affects the skies." But, alas! 
how blind and errmg is this principle, without the enlightening 
and guiding iniluence of Christianity.-— A/n. Ed. 



THE PROCESS OF SMELTING IRON, 131 

with iron by the European traders, do not attempt 
to manufacture it for themselves ; but in the in- 
land parts, the natives smelt this useful metal in 
such quantities, as not only to supply themselves 
from it with all necessary weapons and instru- 
ments, but even to make it an article of commerce 
with some of the neighbouring states. During 
Park's stay at Kamalia there was a smelting fur- 
nace at a short distance from his hut. The owner 
and his workmen made no secret about the manner 
of conducting the operation, and readily allowed 
our traveller to examine the furnace, and assist 
them in breaking the iron-stone. The furnace, 
which is represented in our engraving in page 122, 
was a circular tower of clay, about ten feet high 
and three feet in diameter, surrounded in two places 
with withes, to prevent the clay from cracking and 
falling to pieces by the violence of the heat. Round 
the lower part, on a level with the ground (but not 
so low as the bottom of the furnace, which was 
somewhat concave), were made seven apertures, 
into every one of which were inserted three tubes 
of clay, the apertures being then plastered up in 
such a manner that no air could enter the furnace 
but through the tubes, by the opening and shutting 
of which the fire was regulated. These tubes were 
formed by plastering a mixture of clay and grass 
round a smoth roller of wood : as soon as the clay 
began to harden, this roller was withdrawn, and 
the tube was left to dry in the sun. The iron-stone 
used for smelting was very heavy, and of a dull 
red colour, with grayish specks ; it was broken into 
pieces about the size of a hen's egg, A bundle of 
dry wood was first put into the furnace, and cov- 
L 



132 THE PROCESS OF SMELTING IRON. 

ered with a considerable quantity of charcoal, 
which was brought, ready burned, from the woods. 
Over this was laid a stratum of iron-stone, and 
then another of charcoal, and so on, until the fur- 
nace was quite full. The fire was applied through 
one of the tubes, and blown for some time with bel- 
lows made of goats' skins. " The operation," says 
Park, *' went on very slowly at first, and it was 
some hours before the flames appeared above the 
furnace ; but after this it burned with great vio- 
lence all the first night ; and the people who at- 
tended put in at times more charcoal. On the day 
following the fire was not so fierce, and on the sec- 
ond night some of the tubes were withdrawn, and 
the air allowed to have freer'access to the furnace ; 
but the heat was still very great, and a bluish flame 
rose some feet above the top of the furnace. On the 
third day from the commencement of the operation 
all the tubes were taken out, the ends of many of 
them being vitrefied with the heat ; but the metal 
was not removed until some days afterward, when 
the whole was perfectly cool. Part of the furnace 
was then taken down, and the iron appeared in the 
form of a large irregular mass, with pieces of char- 
coal adhering to it. It was sonorous ; and when 
any portion was broken off, the fracture exhibited 
a granulated appearance like broken steel. The 
owner informed me that many parts of this cake 
were useless, but still there was good iron enough 
to repay him for his trouble. This iron, or, rather, 
steel, is formed into various instruments by being 
repeatedly heated in a forge, the heat of which is 
urged by a pair of double bellows, of a very simple 
construction, being made of two goats' skins, the 



SLAVERY IN AFRICA. 133 

tubes from which unite before they enter the forge, 
and supply a constant and very regular blast. The 
hammer, forceps, and anvil are all very simple, and 
the workmanship (particularly in the formation of 
knives and spears) is not destitute of merit. The 
iron, indeed, is hard and brittle,* and requires 
much labour before it can be made to answer the 
purpose." 



CHAPTER XII. 

Slavery in Africa. — Different Kinds of Slaves. — Sources of Sla- 
very. — Modes of African Warfare. — Famine, and other Cau- 
ses of Slavery. — Mode of collecting Gold-dust. — Process of 

• washing it. — Great Value of Salt in Manding. — Mode of pro 
curing Ivory. — Manner of hunting the Elephant. 

[1797-1798.] 

A LARGE numoer of the inhabitants of the coun- 
tries which were visited by Park existed in a state 
of slavery. He himself supposes that " the slaves, 
in Africa are nearly in the proportion of three to 
one to the freemen." Two classes of slaves are 
distinguished ; namely, first, the domestic sjaves, 
or such as are born in a man's own house, of ensla- 
ved mothers ; and, secondly, such as are acquired 
by purchase, or other means. All these slaves re- 

* This is doubtless owing to its being kept so long in a state 
effusion in the furnace, whereby it becomes highly oxygenated. 
In countries where the arts are better understood, the liquid 
metal is drawn off at short intervals by means of an aperture 
near the bottora of the furnace. — Am. Ed. 



184 DIFFEKENT KliXDS OF SLAVES. 

ceive only food and clothing for their services, and 
are treated with kindness or severity, according to 
the good or bad disposition of their masters. Cus- 
tom, however, has established, in favour of domes- 
tic slaves, certain rules w^hich do not apply to the 
others. Except in certain emergencies, the do- 
mestic slave cannot be sold, unless some miscon- 
duct or demerit of his own be proved at a public 
trial before the chief men of the place. The emer- 
gencies are these : the existence of a famine, when 
a master is permitted to sell one or more of his do- 
mestic slaves, to purchase provisions for his fami- 
ly ; and the insolvency of the master, in which 
case the domestic slaves are sometimes seized by 
his creditors, and, if he cannot redeem them, are 
liable to be sold for the payment of his debts. 

Slaves of the second description are wholly at 
the disposal of their masters, who may sell them 
at his pleasure. There are, indeed, regular mar- 
kets for slaves of this description ; and we are told 
that the value of a slave, in the eye of an African 
purchaser, increases in proportion to his distance 
from his native kingdom. The reason is this ; 
that when slaves are only a few days' journey from 
the place of their nativity, they frequently effect 
their escape ; but when one or more kingdoms in- 
tervene, escape being more difficult, they are more 
readily reconciled to their situation. On this ac- 
count, a slave is frequently transferred from one 
dealer to another, until he has lost all hope of re- 
turning to his native country. 

Slaves of the second class may be regarded as of 
two kinds : first, there are those who were once do- 
mestic slaves, but who have passed out of the hands 



;w SOURCES OF SLAVERY. 135 

of their original owners ; and, secondly, those who 
were born free, but who have since, by whatever 
means, become slaves. It has been already stated, 
that in certain cases domestic slaves may be sold ; 
and, of course, their position, in regard to their pur- 
chaser, becomes different from that in which they 
stood with regard to their original owner, in whose 
house they were born. But it is the fortune of 
war which most frequently changes the condition 
of a domestic slave by rendering him a captive. 
From the relative numbers of the free and enslaved 
population, it is natural that slaves should constitute 
a large proportion of the prisoners taken in battle ; 
and this proportion is farther increased by the ine- 
quality in the means of escape which the free man 
and the slave respectively possess, the former be- 
ing in general mounted, and better armed. Of 
900 prisoners taken upon one occasion, only 70 
were free men. Moreover, the friends of a cap- 
tive free man will sometimes ransom him b}^ giving 
two slaves in exchange ; but the slave has no such 
hopes of redemption. 

The causes by which a free man may become a 
slave are distinguished by Park into four : IsU 
jCapjivity ; 2d, Famine ; 3d. Insolvency ; 4th. 
Crimes. The first operates to by far the greatest 
"^extent. Prisoners of war are the slaves of the 
conquerors ; " and when the weak and unsuccess- 
ful warrior begs for mercy beneath the uplifted 
spear of his opponent, he gives up, at the same 
time, his claim to liberty, and purchases his life at 
the expense of his freedom." The wars of Africa, 
which frequently originate in very frivolous dis- 
putes, are of two kinds ; that species which bears 



t, 136 MODES OF AFRICAN WARFARE. 

the greatest resemblance to our European contesta 
is denominated killi, a word signifying " to call 
' M out," because such wars are openly avowed and 
''^' previously declared. Wars of this discription 
commonly terminate in the course of a single 
campaign. A battle is fought, the vanquished sel- 
dom think of rallying again ; the whole inhabitants 
become panic-striken ; and the conquerors have 
only to bind the slaves, and carry off their plunder 
and their victims. Such of the prisoners as, through 
age or infirmity, are unable to endure fatigue, or 
are found unfit for sale, are considered useless ; 
" and I have no doubt," says Park, " are frequent- 
ly put to death. The same fate commonly awaits 
a chief, or any other person who has taken a very 
distinguished part in the war. And here it may be 
observed, that, notwithstanding this exterminating 
system, it is surprising to behold how soon an Af. 
rican town is rebuilt and repeopled. The circum- 
stance arises probably from this ; their pitched bat- 
tles are few ; the weakest know their own situa- 
tion, and seek safety in flight. When their coun- 
try has been desolated, and their ruined towns and 
villages deserted by the enemy, such of the inhabi- 
tants as have escaped the sword and the chain gen- 
erally return, though with cautious steps, to the 
place of their nativity ; for it seems to be the uni- 
versal wish of mankind to spend the evening of 
their days where they passed their infancy. The 
poor negro feels this desire in its full force. To 
him no water is sweet but what is drawn from his 
own well ; and no tree has so cool or pleasant a 
shade as the tahha-Xree^ of his native village. 

* This is a large spreading tree (a species of sterculia) under 
which the bentang is commonly placed. 



MODES OF AFRICAN WARFARE. 137 

When war compels liim to abandon the delightful 
spot in which he first drew his breath, and seek 
for safety in some other kingdom, his time is spent 
in talking about the country of his ancestors ; and 
no sooner is peace restored, than he turns his back 
upon the land of strangers, rebuilds with haste his 
fallen wails, and exults to see the smoke ascend 
from his native village." 

The other species of African warfare is distin- 
guished by the appellation of tegria, " plundering or/j/- 
stealing." It arises from a sort of hereditary feud \ 
which the inhabitants of one nation or district bear 
towards another. No immediate cause of hostili- 
ty is assigned ; each party watches every opportu- 
nity to plunder and distress the other by predatory 
excursions. These are very common, particular- 
ly about the beginning of the dry season, when the 
labour of the harvest is over, and provisions are 
plentiful. Schemes of vengeance are then medi- 
tated. " The chief man surveys the number and 
activity of his vassals, as they brandish their spears 
at festivals ; and, elated with his own importance, 
turns his whole thoughts towards revenging some 
depredation or insult, which either he or his an- 
cestors may have received from a neighbouring 
state." 

Wars of this description are generally conduct- 
ed with great secrecy. A few resolute individu- 
als, headed by some persons of enterprise and cour- 
age, march quietly through the woods, surprise in 
the night some unprotected village, and carry off 
the inhabitants and their effects before their neigh- 
bours can come to their assistance. Sometimes a 
single individual takes his bow and quiver, and pro- 
M2 



138 CAUSES OF SLAVERY. 

ceeds in like manner ; he conceals himself among 
the bushes until some young or unarmed person 
passes by, then, tiger-like, springs upon his prey, 
drags his victim into the thicket, and in the night 
carries him off as a slave. 

The second cause of slavery is faraine. " Per- 
haps," says Park, " by a philosophic and reflectitg 
mind, death itself would scarcely be considered as a 
greater calamity than slavery ; but the poor negro, 
when fainting with hunger, thinks, like Esau of old, 
' Behold, I am at the point to die, and what projit shall 
this birthright do to me V There are many instances 
of free men voluntarily surrendering up their liber, 
ty to save their lives. During a great scarcity, 
which lasted for three years, in the countries of 
the Gambia, great numbers of people became slaves 
in this manner. Dr. Laidley assured me that, at 
that time, many free men came and begged with 
great earnestness to he put upon his slave chain, 
to save them from perishing of hunger. Large 
famiUes are often exposed to absolute want ; and 
as the parents have almost unlimited authority 
over their children, it often happens, in all parts 
of Africa, that some of the latter are sold to pur- 
chase provisions for the rest of the family." An 
example of this practice, which fell under Park's 
observation at Womba, has been already noticed.* 

The third cause by which a free man becomes 
a slave is insolvency. Not only the effects of an 
insolvent, but even the insolvent himself, is sold to 
satisfy the claims of his creditors. The fourth 
cause is the commission of certain crimes, such as 
murder, &c,, to which the laws of the country at- 
tach the punishment of being sold into slavery. 
* See page 112. 



MODE OF COLLECTING GOLD. 139 

When a free man has become a slave by any 
one of these four causes, he generally continues 
such for life, and his children (if they are born of 
an enslaved mother) are brought up in the same 
state of servitude. •There are, however, a few in- 
stances of slaves obtaining their freedom, and 
sometimes even with the consent of their masters ; 
as by performing some singular piece of service, 
or by going to battle and bringing home two slaves 
as a ransom ; but the common way of regaining 
freedom is by escape ; and when slaves have once 
set their minds on running away, they often suc- 
ceed. " Some of them will wait for years before 
an opportunity presents itself, and during that pe- 
riod show no signs of discontent. In general, it 
may be remarked, that slaves who come from a 
hilly country, and have been much accustomed to 
hunting and travel, are more apt to attempt their 
escape than such as are born in a flat country, and 
have been employed in cultivating the land." 

During his stay at Kamalia, Park gathered some 
interesting information concerning the mode of ob- 
taining two of the most valuable commodities found, 
in Africa, gold and ivory. In every part of Man- / 
ding gold exists in large quantities ; it is found, not 
in any matrix or vein, but in small grains nearly 
in a pure state, from the size of a pin's head to 
that of a pea, scattered through a large body of 
sand or clay. The manner of collecting it is de- 
scribed with some particularity. About the be- 
ginning of December, when the harvest is over, 
and the streams and torrents have greatly subsi- 
ded, the mansa, or chief of the town, appoints a 
day to begin sanoo koo, " gold-washing f" and the 



140 MODE OF COLLECTINJ 

women are sure to have themselves in readiness 
^ by the time appointed. A paddle or spade for 
digging up the sand, two or three calabashes for 
washing it in, and a few quills for containing the 
gold dust, are all the implements necessary for the 
purpose. On the morning of their departure a 
bullock is killed for the first day's entertaiament, 
and a number of prayers and charms are used ^o 
ensure success ; for a failure on that day is thought 
a bad omen. Park tells us that the mansa of Ka- 
malia, with fourteen of his people, were so much 
disappointed in their first day's washing, that very 
few of them had resolution to persevere ; and the 
few that did had but very indifferent success. This, 
indeed, was not much to be wondered at ; for, in- 
stead of opening some untried place, they contin- 
ued to dig and wash in the same spot where they 
had dug and washed for years ; and where, ol 
course, but few large grains could be left. 

To wash the sands of the streams is by far the ea- 
siest way of obtaining the gold-dust ; but in most 
places the sands have been so narrowly searched be- 
fore, that, unless the stream takes some new course, 
the gold is found but in small quantities. While 
some of the party are busied in washing the sands, 
others employ themselves farther up the torrent, 
where the rapidity of the stream has carried away 
all the clay, sand, &c., and left nothing but small 
pebbles. The search among these is a very trouble- 
some task ; and, occasional!)', the women have the 
skin worn off the tops of their fingers in this em- 
ployment. Sometimes, however, the}" are reward- 
ed by findiiig pieces of gold which they call sanoo 
hirro, "gold stones," that amply repay them foi 



AND WASHINli GOLD-DUST. 141 

their trouble. A woman and her daughter, inhab- 
itants of Kamalia, found in one day two pieces of 
this kind ; one of five drachms and the other three 
drachms weight. But the most certain and profit, 
able mode of washing is that of digging a deep 
pit, Uke a draw-well, near some hill which has pre- 
viously been ascertained to contain gold. This 
pit is dug with small spades or corn paddles, and 
the earth is drawn up in large calabashes. As 
the negroes dig through different strata of clay or 
sand, a calabash or tw^o of each is washed by way 
of experiment ; and in this manner the labourers 
proceed until they come to a stratum containing 
gold, or until they are obstructed by rocks or inun- 
dated by water. " In general, when they come to 
a stratum of fine reddish sand, wath small black 
specks therein, they find gold in some proportion 
or other, and send up large calabashes full of the 
sand for the women to wash ; for, though the pit 
is dug by the men, the gold is always washed by 
the women, who are accustomed from their infan- 
cy to a similar operation, in separating the husks 
of corn from the meal." In his second journey 
Park had a better opportunity of observing the 
simple process of washing this sand and extracting 
the particles of gold therefrom ; we have inserted 
in its place his account of the operation, which is 
further illustrated by the engraving in the title- 
page. 

By far the greater portion of the gold collected 
in Manding is annually carried away by the Moors, 
in exchange principally for the salt which they bring 
from the Great Desert. From the earliest ages 
this exchange of salt for gold has been the basis of 



142 VALUE OF SALT IN MANDING. 

the trade between northern and central Africa. 
The interior countries, fertile though they be, and 
abounding in gold, are yet destitute of saU ; and 
thus in those countries, that necessary of life be- 
comes " the greatest of all luxuries," to use Park's 
expression. '• It would appear strange to a Eu- 
ropean," he says, " to see a child suck a piece of 
rock salt as if it were sugar. This, however, I 
have frequently seen, although in the inland parts 
the poorer class of inhabitants are so rarely indul- 
ged with this precious article, that to say a man 
eats salt to his victuals is the same as saying he is 
a rich man. 1 have myself suffered great inconve- 
nience from the scarcity of this article. The long 
use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing 
for salt, that no words can sufficiently describe it." 

During Park's stay at Kamalia, the quantity of 
gold which was collected, even at that small town, 
to be exchanged for salt, was nearly equivalent to 
one hundred and ninety-eight pounds sterling.* Of 
the value of salt in that part of Africa, some notion 
may be formed from the fact that one slab, about 
two feet and a half in length, fourteen inches in 
breadth, and two inches in thickness, will sometimes 
sell for about two pounds ten shillings sterling,^ and 
that its common price varies from one pound fifteen 
shiUings to two pounds. ♦ 

Ivory is another staple product of the interior 
countries of Africa. Park tells us that nothing 
creates a greater surprise among the negroes on 
the seacoast than the eagerness displayed by the 
European traders to procure elephant's teeth ; it 
being exceeding difficult to make them comprehend 

* About $950, t About $12. 



MODE OF PEOCUKING IVORY. 143 

to what use the material is applied. AUhough/ "> \. 
knives with ivory hafts, combs, and toys of the same f\ 
material, are shown to them, and they are convinced 
that the ivory thus manufactured was originally 
part of a tooth, yet they are not satisfied. They 
suspect that this commodity is more frequently con- 
verted in Europe to purposes of far greater impor- 
tance, the true nature of which is studiously con- 
cealed from them, lest the price of ivory should be 
enhanced. They cannot, they say, easily persuade 
themselves that ships would be built, and voyages 
undertaken, to procure an article which had no 
other value than that of furnishing handles to knives, 
&c., when pieces of wood would answer the pur- 
pose equally well. 

In the interior countries of Africa elephants are 
very numerous, and it is from those countries that 
the greater part of the ivory which is sold on the 
Gambia and Senegal rivers, is brought. The lands 
towards the coast are too swampy, and too much in- 
tersected with creeks and rivers for so bulky an 
animal as the elephant to travel through without 
being discovered ; and when once the natives dis- 
cern the marks of his feet in the earth, the whole 
village is up in arms. The thoughts of feasting J^J)^ 
on his flesh, making sandals of his hide, and selling 
the teeth to the Europeans, inspire every one with 
courage ; and the animal seldom escapes from his 
pursuers. But in the plains of Bambarra and 
Kaarta, and the extensive wilds of Jallonkadoo, the 
elephants are very numerous ; and, from the scar- 
city of gunpowder in those districts, they are less 
annoyed by the natives. 

Scattered teeth are frequently picked up in the 



144 MODE OF HUNTING THE ELEPHANT. 

woods, and travellers are very diligent in looking 
for them. It is a common practice with the ele- 
phant to thrust his teeth under the roots of such 
shrubs and bushes as grow in the more dry and 
elevated parts of the country where the soil is shal- 
low. He easily overturns these bushes and feeds 
on the roots, which are, in general, more tender 
and juicy than the hard, woody branches or the fo- 
liage ; and when the teeth are partly decayed by 
age, and the roots more firmly fixed, the great ex- 
ertions of the animal in this practice frequently 
cause them to break short. At Kamalia Park saw 
two teeth, one a very large one, which were found 
in the woods, and which had been evidently broken 
off in this manner. Indeed, he says, it is difRcul 
otherwise to account for such a large proportion 
of broken ivory as is daily offered for sale at the 
different factories ; for when the elephant is killed 
in hunting, unless he dashes himself over a preci- 
pice, the teeth are always extracted entire. 

At certain seasons of the year the elephants as- 
semble in large herds, and traverse the country in 
quest of food and water. In this search they are 
compelled to approach the banks of the Niger, 
where they continue until the commencement of 
the rainy season, in the month of June or July ; 
and during their stay they are actively hunted by 
such of the natives as have gunpowder to spare. 
The elephant-hunters generally go out in parties 
of four to five ; each man having furnished him- 
self with powder and ball, and a quantity of corn- 
meal in a leathern bag, sufficient for the con- 
sumption of five or six days, they enter the retired 
parts of the woods, and examine carefully every- 



MODE OF HUNTING THE ELEPHANT. 145 

thing that can lead to the discovery of the ele- 
phants. In this pursuit great nicety of observation 
is required ; the broken branches, the foot-marks, 
and other indications are carefully inspected. 
Many of the hunters, as soon as they observe the 
footmarks of an elephant, will tell almost with cer- 
tainty at what time the animal passed, and at what 
distance it will be found. 

When the hunters discover a herd of elephants, 
they follow at a distance until they perceive some 
one stray from the rest, and come into such a sit- 
uation as to be fired at with advantage. They 
then approach with great caution, creeping among 
the long grass until they have got near enough to 
be sure of their aim. They then all discharge their 
pieces at once, and throw themselves on their faces 
among the grass. The wounded elephant imme- 
diately applies his trunk to the different wounds, 
but, being unable to extract the balls, and seeing 
nobody near him, becomes quite furious, and runs 
about among the bushes until by fatigue and loss of 
blood he has exhausted himself, and affords the hunt- 
ers an opportunity of firing a second time at him, 
by which he is generally brought to the ground. 

The skin is now taken off, and extended on the 
ground with pegs to dry, and such parts of the flesh 
as are most esteemed are cut up into thin slices, 
and dried in the sun, to serve for provisions on 
some future occasion. The teeth are struck out 
with a light hatchet, which the hunters always 
carry along with them, not only for that purpose, 
but also to enable them to cut down such trees as 
contain honey ; for, though they carry with them 
only five or six days' provisions, they will remain 



146 park's DEFARTUKE from KA31AL1A 

in the woods for months if they are successful, and 
support themselves upon the flesh of such elephants 
as they kill, and wild honey. 



CHAPTER Xni. 

Park's Departure from Kamalia with a Coffle of Slaves for the 
Gambia. — Difficulties of the Journey. — Crossing the JaDonk^ 
"Wilderness. — Melancholy Fate of a Female sjiave. — Arrival ol 
the Coffle at Jmdey.— Park's Arrival at Plsama. — His Voyage 
Home. — His Arrival in London. 

[1797.] 

The departure of the coffle was repeatedly ae- 
layed on various grounds, with the characteristic 
procrastination of the negroes, in whose eyes, Park 
remarks, *time is of no importance. The delay 
was a source of great annoyance to our traveller. 
Habit had indeed reconciled him to the African 
mode of life, and a smoky hut and a scanty supper, 
to use his own expressions, gave him no great un- 
easiness ; but he became at last wearied out with 
a constant state of alarm and anxiety, and felt " a 
painful longing for the manifold blessings of civil- 
ized society." 

At length, on the 19th of April, 1797, the long- 
wished-for departure took place. The coffle, on 
leaving Kamalia, consisted of twenty-seven slaves 
for sale, the property of Karfa and four other Sia- 
tees; but was soon afterward joined by five at Mar- 
boo, and three at Bala, making, in all, thirty-five 



WITH A COFFLE OF SLAVES. 147 

slaves. The free men were fourteen in number, 
but most of them had one or two wives and some 
domestic slaves ; and the schoolmast er, who was 
now upon his return for the'pIace'^oFhis nativity, 
took with him eight of his scholars ; so that the 
number of free people and domestic slaves amount- 
ed to thirty-eight, and the whole amount of the cof- 
fle was seventy. three. Among the free men were 
six jiUaJiaag^singing men), whose musical talents 
were frequently exerted either to divert the fatigue 
of the party, or to obtain them a welcome from 
strangers. " When we departed from Kamalia," 
says Park, " we were followed, for about half a mile, 
by most of the inhabitants of the town, some of them 
crying, and others shaking hands with their rela- 
tions, who were now about to leave them ; and 
when we had gained a piece of rising ground, from 
which we had a view of Kamalia, all the people 
belonging to the coffle were ordered to sit down in 
one place, with their faces towards the west, and 
the townspeople were desired to sit down in anoth- 
er place, with their faces towards Kamalia. In this 
situation, the schoolmaster, with two of the princi- 
pal Slatees, having taken their places between the 
two parties, pronounced a long and solemn prayer ; 
after which they walked three times round the cof- 
fle, making* an impression on the ground with the 
end of their spears, and muttering something by 
way of charm. When this ceremony was ended, 
all the people belonging to the coffle sprang up, and, 
without taking a formal farewell of their friends, 
set forw^ard." 

The journey from Kamalia occupied more than 
six weeks ; it was one of great labour and difficuK 
M 



148 ATTACK OF A HIVE OF BEES, 

ty, and it afforded our traveller the most painful 
opportunities of witnessing the miseries endured by 
a caravan of slaves in their transportation from the 
interior to the coast. On the 23d of April, the 
cofile entered the Jallonka Wilderness, and in five 
days travelled upward of one hundred miles with- 
out seeing a human habitation. In this toilsome 
and rapid march, Park himself was " sadly appre- 
hensive'* that he should be unable to keep up with 
the coftle ; many of the slaves, who had loads on 
their heads, were very much fatigued, and some of 
them snapped their fingers, " which among the ne- 
groes is a sure sign of desperation." On the morn- 
ing of the 24th, one of Karfa's female slaves was 
" very sulky," and, when some gruel was offered 
to her, she refused to drink it ; she soon began to 
lag behind, and complain dreadfully of pains in hei 
legs. Her load was taken from her and given to 
another slave, and she was ordered to keep in the 
front of the coffle. 

About eleven o'clock, as they were resting by a 
small rivulet, some of the people discovered a hive 
of bees in a hollow tree, and they were proceeding 
to obtain the honey, when a remarkably large 
swarm flew out, and, attacking the people of the 
coffle, made them fly in all directions. Park first 
took the alarm, and was the only person who es- 
caped with impunity. When the bees thought fit 
to desist from pursuing them, and every person 
was employed in picking out the stings he had re- 
ceived, it was discovered that the female slave 
above mentioned, whose name was Nealee, had 
not come up ; and as many of the slaves in their 
retreat had left their bundles behind them, it be- 



AND ITS EFFECTS. 149 

came necessary for some persons to return and 
bring them. In order to do this with safety, fire 
was set to the grass a considerable way eastward 
of the hive, and the wind driving the fire furiously 
along, the party pushed through the smoke and re- 
covered the bundles ; they likewise brought with 
them poor Nealee, whom they found lying by the 
rivulet very much exhausted. She had crept to 
the stream, in the hope of defending herself from 
the bees by throwing water over her body ; but 
this proved ineffectual, for she was stung in the 
most dreadful manner. 

The fate of this unfortunate slave is one of the 
most affecting incidents recorded in Park's nar- 
rative. "When the Slatees had picked out the 
stings as far as they could, she was washed with 
water, and then rubbed with bruised leaves ; but 
the wretched woman obstinately refused to proceed 
any farther, declaring that she would rather die 
than walk another step. As entreaties and threats 
were used in vain, the whip was at length applied ; 
and after bearing patiently a few strokes, she start- 
ed up, and walked with tolerable expedition for 
four or five hours longer, when she made an at- 
tempt to run away from the coffle, but was so very 
weak that she fell dowi. in the grass. Though 
she was unable to rise, the whip was a second time 
applied, but without effect; upon which Karfa de- 
sired two of the Slatees to place her upon the ass 
which carried oar dry provisions, but she could 
not sit erect ; and the ass being very refractory, 
it was found impossible to carry her forward in 
that manner. The Slatees, however, were unwill- 
ing to abandon her, the day's journey being nearly 



150 FATE OF A FE3IALE SLAVE. 

ended ; they therefore made a sort of litter of bam- 
boo canes, upon which she was placed, and tied on 
it with slips of bark ; this litter was carried upon 
the heads of two slaves, one walking before the 
other, and they were followed by two others, who 
relieved them oo<>asionally. In this manner the 
woman was carried forward until it was dark." 

At daybreak on the 25th, " poor Nealee was 
awakened, but her limbs were now become so stiff 
and painful that she could neither walk nor stand ; 
she was therefore lifted, like a corpse, upon the 
back of the ass, and the Slatees endeavoured to se- 
cure her in that situation by fastening her hands 
together under the ass's neck, and her feet under 
the belly, with long slips of bark ; but the ass was 
so very unruly that no sort of treatment could in- 
duce him to proceed with his load ; and, as Nealee 
made no exertion to prevent herself from falling, 
she was quickly thrown off, and had one of her legs 
much bruised. Every attempt to carry her being 
thus found ineffectual, the general cry of the coffle 
was, 'kang-tegi, kang-tegf (cut her throat, cut her 
throat), an operation I did not wish to see perform- 
ed, and therefore marched onward with the foremost 
of the coffle. I had not walked above a mile, when 
one of Karfa's domestic slaves came up to me, with 
poor Nealee's garment upon the end of his bow, 
and exclaimed, ' Nealee affilita^ (Nealee is lost). I 
asked him whether the Slatees had given him the 
garment as a reward for cutting her throat ; he 
repUed that Karfa and the schoolmaster would not 
consent to that measure, but had left her on the 
road, where undoubtedly she soon perished, and 
was probably devoured by wild beasts The sad 



1 



PAIJSFUL SEPARATION. 151 

fate of this wretched womaD, notwithstanding the 
outcry before mentioned, made a strong impression 
on the minds of the whole coffle, and the school- ' 
master fasted the whole of the ensuing day in con- 
sequence of it.'' 

On the 28th the coffle passed the Bafing, or Black ' ^ 
River, a principal branch of the Senegal, on a floaty, v/'^^ 
ing bridge of trees and bamboos,* of singular cori- 
struction, which is every year carried away by the 
swelling of the stream in the rainy season, and re- 
built by the people of the neighbouring town. On 
the 3d of May they reached the town of Malacot- 
ta, on approaching which Park was witness to a 
very affecting interview between his kind friend the 
sctLOokfta^^3*rFankooma, and his elder brother, who 
Had not seen each other for nine years. 

Of the remainder of the route it is unnecessary 
now to speak, as it was nearly that which Park fol- 
lowed in advancing on his second expedition. On 
the 5th of June the coffle reached Jindey, where, 
eighteen months before, our traveller had parted 
from his friend Dr. Laidley, an interval during 
which, to use his own pathetic expression, he had 
not beheld the face of a Christian, nor once heard 
the deliojhtful sound of his native languao-e. On 
the morning of the 9th he set out with Karfa for 
Pisania. " Although," he says, " I was now ap- 
proaching the end of my tedious and toilsome jour- 
ney, and expected in another day to meet with 
countrymen and friends, I could not part, for the 
last time, with my unfortunate fellow-travellers, 
doomed, as I knew most of them to be, to a life of 

* See Engraving in the frontispiece. 



152 PAES'S CBATTTUDE TO HIS COXDUCTOR. 

cap::vi:y and slavery la a foreign ]and, without 
great emotion. 

" During a wearisome peregrination of more than 
five hundred British miles, exposed to the burning 
rays of a tropical sun, these poor slaves, amid their 
own infinitely greater sufierings, would commiser- 
ate mine ; and frequently, of their own accord, 
bring water to quench my thirst, and at night col- 
lect branches and leaves to prepare me a bed in 
the wilderness. We parted with reciprocal ex- 
pressions of regret and benediction. My good 
wishes and prayers were all I could bestow upon 
them, and it aflTorded me some consolation to be 
told that they were sensible I had no more to give." 

On the morning of the 10th, Mr. Robert Ainsley 
came to meet him, and in a few hours the party 
reached Pisania, where Karfa Taura was kept " in 
deep meditation" the greater part of the day by a 
schooner which was lying at anchor before the 
place. About noon on the 12th. Dr. Laidley, who 
had been temporarily absent, arrived and received 
our traveller with great joy, •• as one risen from 
the dead . " Park was not forgetful of his benevolent 
protector, Karfa Taura. The recompense which 
had been agreed upon was the value of one prime 
slave. '• But this good creature," he says, " had 
continued to manifest towards me so much kind- 
ness, that I thought I made him an inadequate rec- 
ompense when I told him that he was now to re- 
ceive double the sum I had originally promised ; 
and Dr. Laidley assured him that he was ready to 
deliver the goods to th^t amount whenever he 
thought proper to send for them. Karfa was over, 
powered by this unexpected token of my gratitude^ 



** BLACK MEN ARE NOTHING." 153 

and still more so when he heard that I intended to 
send a handsome present to the good old school- 
master, Fankooma, at Malacotta. He promised 
to carry up the goods along with his own, and Dr. 
Laidley assured him, that he would exert himself 
in assisting him to dispose of his slaves to the best 
advantage the moment a slave-vessel should ar- 
rive. These, and other instances of attention and 
kindness shown him by Dr. Laidley, were not lost 
upon Karfa ; he would often say to me, ' My jour- 
ney has indeed been prosperous !' But, observing 
the improved state of our manufactures, and our 
manifest superiority in the arts of civilized Mfe, he 
would sometimes appear pensive, and exclaim with 
an involuntary sigh, ' Faio Jing, inta feng^ (black 
men are nothing). At other times he would ask 
me with great seriousness, what could possibly have 
induced me, who was no trader, to think of explo- 
ring so miserable a country as Africa ? He meant 
by this to signify that, after what I must have wit- 
nessed in my own country, nothing in Africa could, 
in his opinion, deserve a moment's attention. I 
have preserved these little traits of character in 
this worthy negro, not only from regard to the 
man, but also because they appear to me to de- 
monstrate that he possessed a mind above his con- 
dition ; and to such of my readers as love to con- 
template human nature in all its varieties, and to 
trace its progress from rudeness to refinement, I 
hope the account I have given of this poor African 
will not be unacceptable." 

On the 17th of June Park embarked in an 
American slave-ship which was bound to South 
Carolina, but which was driven by stress of weath- 



154 PARKAS ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 

er to the West Indian island of Antigua, where she 
was condemned as unfit for sea. From Antigua 
he sailed in the packet on the 24th of November, 
and after a short but tempestuous passage, arrived 
at Falmouth on the 22d of December, having been 
absent from England two years and seven months. 
Immediately on his landing he hastened to Lon- 
don, anxious in the greatest degree about his fam- 
ily and friends, of whom he had heard nothing for 
two years. He arrived in Loudon before daylight 
on the morning of Christmas-day, 1797 ; and the 
hour being too early for him to go to his brother- 
in-law, Mr. Dickson, he wandered for some time 
about the streets in the neighbouring quarter of 
the town. Finding one of the entrances into the 
gardens of the British Museum accidentally open, 
he went in and walked about there for some time. 
It happened that Mr. Dickson, who had the care of 
those gardens, went there early that morning upon 
some trifling business. " What must have been 
his emotions on beholding, at that extraordinary 
time and place, the vision, as it must at first have 
appeared, of his long- lost friend, the object of so 
many reflections, and whom he had long numbered 
with the dead !" 



HIS NARRATIVE. 155 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Inierost excited by Park's Return. — Publication of his Narra- 
tive.— Importance of his Discoveries, particularly concerning 
the Niger. — His Marriage.— His Anxiety to be again sent Out. 
— His Settlement at Peebles as a Surgeon. — His Dissatisfac- 
tion with his Occupation. — Application of the Government to 
him. — His Acceptance of their Offer. — Delays in the setting 
out of the Expedition. — Park's Instructions. 

[1797-1805.] 

The unexpected return of Park, after so long an 
absence, excited considerable interest in the public, 
and especially among his friends and patrons of the 
African Association, who very naturally regarded 
his success, though partial, as a great triumph, af- 
ter their previous disappointments. He remained 
for some months in London, arranging the mate- 
rials of his journal, and enabling Mr. Bryan Ed- 
wards, the secretary of the Association, to draw up 
an abstract for publication, in order to gratify, in 
a certain degree, the curiosity which prevailed on 
the subject. In the spring of 1798, the govern- 
ment, desiring to procure a complete survey of 
New Holland, made some application to Park for 
that purpose ; but the proposal was dechned. It 
was afterward repeated, and again declined, in the 
following year. 

Ij^June, 1798, Park visited his relations in Scot- 
land, and remained with them throughout the sum. 
mer and autumn. During the whole of this period 



156 liVIPORTANCE OF PARK S DISCOVERIES. 

he was assiduously employed in compiling the Nar- 
rative of his travels ; a task of which the labour 
was increased by the unavoidable imperfections of 
his notes and memoranda. Towards the close of 
the year he returned to London, and superintended 
the printing of his journal, which was at length pub- 
lished in the spring of 1799. 

The information communicated to the world in 
this work has been described as " the greatest ac- 
cession to the general stock of geographical knowl- 
edge which was ever yet made by any single trav- 
eller." One of the most distinguished geographers 
of modern times* has said, that Park's discoveries 
" gave a new face to the physical geography of 
Western Africa." His most brilliant achievement 
undoubtedly, and the one with which his name is 
more particularly identified, was the settlement of 
the long-pending dispute concerning the course of 
the Niger. For the space of 2200 years geogra- 
phers had been publishing to the world vague no- 
tices of a large river in the interior of Africa, to 
the south of the Great Desert ; and yet, after the 
lapse of so many ages, the world was still in doubt 
upon so simple a matter of fact as the general di- 
rection of its course. For several centuries the 
geographers had all asserted that it ran from west to 
east: then, for another long period, they all assert- 
ed that it ran from east to west ; till at length, in 
modern times, they became divided, and the two di- 

* Major Rennell, by whom also it was said that Park's Jour- 
ney into the Interior of Western Africa had "brought tqppur 
knowledge more important facts respectmg its geography (both 
moral and physical) than had been collected by any former trav- 
eller." 



HIS MARRIAGE, 157 

ametrically opposite opinions found their respective 
supporters. Park decided the controversy, by sup^ 
plying that very important ingredient — which for 
two-and-tvventy hundred years had been wanting — 
the unexceptionable testimony of a competent eye- 
witness. The importance of this testimony is the 
more strongly shown by the curious circumstance 
that, almost at the moment in which Park was as- 
certaining the course of the Niger to be from west 
to east, a learned French writer was ingeniously 
proving, to his own satisfaction, that it must be the 
contrary way.* 

In the summer of 1799 Park returned to Scot- 
land, and, on the 2d of August, was married to 
the eldest daughter of Mr. Anderson, of Selkirk, 
with whom he had served his apprenticeship. For 
more than two years after his marriage he resided 
with his mother and one of his brothers at Fowl- 
shiels, apparently in a state of uncertainty con- 
cerning his future plan of life. During part of the 
year 1799 he was engaged in a negotiation with 
the government relative to some appointment in the 
colony of New South Wales. At one time he 
thought of taking a farm ; and at last he came, re- 
luctantly, to the determination of resuming the prac- 
tice of his profession. But he still constantly en- 
tertained the hope of being sent out on another ex- 
pedition, either by the African Association or by 
the government. 

* And still the speculations of this French writer, as to the 
general course of the Niger, were substantially more correct 
than the opinion of Park himself, it being now ascertained that 
this river has its outlet on the western coast. See Landers' 
Expedition to the Niger (Harpers' Family Library, Nos. xxxv. 
and sxxvi ) — ylm. ^^ 



158 PARK SETTLES AT PEEBLES AS A SURGEON, 

In April, I8OO5 the French settlement of Goree 
was captured by the British, and on the 31st of 
July, in the same year, Park wrote to Sir Joseph 
Banks, pointing out the advantages which that sta- 
tion afforded for opening a communication with the 
interior of Africa. After entering into some de- 
tails, he says, " If such are the views of govern- 
ment, I hope that my exertions, in some shape or 
other, may be of use to my country. I have not, 
as yet, found any situation in which I could practise 
to advantage as a. surgeon, and, unless some of my 
friends interest themselves in my behalf, I must wait 
patiently until the cloud which hangs over my future 
prospects is dispelled." 

At length, in the month of October, 1801, Park 
availed himself of an opportunity which offered, and 
took up his residence in the town of Peebles as a 
surgeon. He soon obtained a good share of the 
limited practice of the place ; but, as his profits 
were at no time considerable, his distaste to the oc- 
cupation was in nowise abated. Indeed, as his bi- 
ographer observes, the situation of a country prac- 
titioner in Scotland, attended with great anxiety 
and bodily fatigue, and leading to no distinction or 
much personal advantage, was little calculated to 
gratify a man whose mind was full of ambitious 
views, and of adventurous and romantic underta- 
kings. Sir Walter Scott says that there is no 
creature in Scotland that works harder and is more 
poorly requited than the country doctor, unless, per- 
haps, it may be his horse. " Such a rural man of 
medicine is usually the inhabitant of some petty 
borough or village, which forms the central point 
of his practice. But, besides attending to such 



PLEAStTRES OF A COUNTRY PRACTITIONER, 159 

cases as the village may afford, he is day and night 
at the service of any one who may command his 
assistance within a circle of forty miles in diameter, 
untraversed by roads in many directions, and in- 
cluding moors, mountains, rivers, and lakes. For 
late and dangerous journeys through an inaccessible 
country ; for services of the most essential kind, ren- 
dered at the expense, or risk at least, of his own 
health and life, the Scottish village doctor receives 
at best a very moderate recompense, often one which 
is totally inadequate, and very frequently none what- 
soever. He mounts at midnight, and traverses in 
darkness paths which, to those less accustomed to 
them, suem fDrmidable in daylight ; through straits 
where the shghtest aberration would 'plunge him 
into a morass or throw him over a precipice ; on 
to cabins which his horse might ride over without 
knowing they lay in his way, unless he happened 
to fall through the roofs. When he arrives at such 
a stately termination of his journey, where his ser- 
vices are required either to bring a wretch into the 
world or to prevent one from leaving it, the scene 
of misery is often such, that, far from touching the 
hard-saved shillings which are gratefully offered to 
him, he bestows his medicines, as well as his at- 
tendance, for charity. 

" I have heard," continues Sir Walter, " the cel- 
ebrated traveller, Mungo Park, who had experien- 
ced both courses of Ufe, rather give the preference 
to travelling as a discoverer in Africa, than to 
wandering by night and day the wilds of his na- 
tive land in the capacity of a country medical 
practitioner. He mentioned having, once upon a 
time, rode forty miles, sat up all night, and sue- 



160 PARK ENGAGES IN A SECOND EXPEDITION. 

cessfuUy assisted a woman under the influence of 
the primitive curse ; for which his only remunera- 
tion was a roasted potato and a draught of butter- 
milk. But his was not the heart which grudged 
the labour that relieved human misery." 

In the autumn of 1303, a letter was addressed 
to Park from the office of the colonial secretary 
of state, desiring his attendance in town without 
delay ; and, on reaching London, he had an inter- 
view with that minister, who informed him of an 
intended expedition to Africa, of which it was pro- 
posed that he should bear a principal part. Park 
returned to Scotland, and formally consulted a few 
of his friends ; but in his own mind the point was 
already decided ; the object of his ambition was 
now within his grasp. He hastily announced to 
Lord Hobart, the colonial secretary, his accept- 
ance of the proposal, employed a short time in set- 
tling his affairs and taking leave of his friends, and 
left Scotland in December, 1803, with the confident 
expectation of embarking very soon for the coast 
of Africa. 

After some delays, the period of departure was 
fixed for the end of February, 1804; but, when ev- 
eiything was in readiness at Portsmouth, and part 
of the troops were actually on board, the expedi- 
tion was suddenly countermanded. A new colo- 
nial secretary. Earl Camden, was appointed ; and 
Park was informed that the expedition could not 
possibly sail before September. At the same time, 
it was suggested to him by some person in author- 
ity that he might advantageously employ the in- 
terval in the practice of taking astronomical ob- 
servations, and in acquiring some knowledge of 



HIS INSTRUCTIONS. 161 

the Arabic language, and that the expense thereby 
incurred would be defrayed by the government. 
Park accordingly returned to Scotland, and resi- 
ded at Peebles and Fowlshiels until the month of 
September, when, in obedience to a summons from 
the colonial office, he again repaired to town. 

Some time, however, elapsed before the details 
of the expedition were finally determined. It was 
at length arranged, that it should consist of Park 
himself, his brother-in-law, Mr. Alexander Ander- 
son, a suigeon of experience, who was to be next 
in authority to Park, and Mr. George Scott, an 
artist of talent, who was to act as draughtsman, 
together with a few boat-builders and artificers. 
Instead of being accompanied by any troops from 
England, they were to be joined at Goree by a cer- 
tain number of soldiers of the African corps sta- 
tioned in that garrison, who might be disposed to 
volunteer for the seivice. The nature of the ex- 
pedition will be best explained by the following in- 
structions, addressed to Park by the colonial sec- 
retary.- 

" Downing-street, 2d January, 1805. 

*' Sir, 
" It being judged expedient that a small expedi- 
tion should be sent into the interior of Africa, with 
a view to discover and ascertain whether any, and 
what, commercial intercourse can be opened there- 
in, for the mutual benefit of the natives and of his 
majesty's subjects, I am commanded by the king to 
acquaint you that, on account of the knowledge you 
have acquired of the nations of Africa, and from 
the indefatigable exertions and perseverance you 



162 PARKAS INSTRUCTIONS 

displayed in your travels among them, liis ma- 
jesty has selected you for conducting this under- 
taking. 

" For better enabling you to execute this ser- 
vice, his majesty has granted you the brevet com- 
mission of a captain in xVfrica, and has also granted 
a similar commission of lieutenant to Mr. Alexan- 
der Anderson, whom you have recommended as a 
proper person to accompany you. Mr. Scott has 
also been selected to attend you as a draughtsman. 
You are hereby empowered to enHst with you in 
this expedition any number you think proper of 
the garrison at Goree, not exceeding forty-five, 
which the commandant of that island will be or- 
dered to place under your command, giving them 
"bounties or encouragement, as may be necessary 
to induce them cheerfully to join with you on the 
expedition. 

" And you are hereby authorized to engage, by 
purchase or otherwise, such a number of black 
artificers at Goree as you shall judge necessary 
for the objects you have in view. 

" You are to be conveyed to Goree in a trans- 
port, convoyed by his majesty's sloop Eugenie, 
which will be directed to proceed with you, in the 
first instance, to St. Jago, in order that you may 
there purchase fifty asses for carrying your bag. 
gage. 

" When you shall have prepared whatever may 
be necessary for securing the objects of your ex- 
pedition at Goree, you are to proceed up the river 
Gambia ; and thence, crossing over to the Senegal, 
to march by such route as you shall find most eli- 
gible, to the banks of the Niger. 



park's IN.ST11UCTI0JMS. IGJJ 

** Tlio great object of your journey will bo to 
pursue the course of this rivtu' to tbe utmost |)ossi- 
ble (iistaiice to whicii it can be traci^i ; to establish 
communications and intercourse with the dillerent 
!iations on the banks ; to obtain all the local knowl- 
edge in your power respecting them ; and to as- 
certain the various points stated in the memoir 
which you delivered to mo on the 4th of October 
last. 

" And you will be then at liberty to pursue your 
route houK^vvard by any line you shall think nlost 
secure, either by taking a new dinx'tion through 
the iuterior towards the Atlantic, or by marching 
upon Cairo by taking the route leading to Tripoli. 

" You are hereby empowered to draw for any 
sum that you may be in want of, not exceeding 
jCr)()()(), upon the lords of his majesty's tn^asury, 
or upon such nuu'cantile IxmRing-liouse in liondon 
as you may i\\ upon. 

" I am, 6lc,, 

" Camden. 

*' 7o Mu7igo Park, Esq., 4-<^." 

Park did not receive these instructions until two 
months had elapsed after the plan of the expedition 
had been finally arranged ; and, afler receiving 
them, nearly another month passiul before he was 
enabled to depart. These repeated delays were a 
sourc(.i of great uneasiness to him, as he foresaw 
the danger of j)ostponing the journi^y into the in- 
terior to the period of tlu», rainy season ; and they 
were ultimately productive of very unfortunate re- 
sults. 

N 



164 PROCEEDINGS AT GOREE. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Departure of Park on his Second Expedition. — His Proceedings 
at Goree.— His Confidence of Success.— High Spirits of the 
Troops. — Park's Letters from Kayee. — Real Difficulties of his 
Situation.— Dangers from the approach of the Rainy Season. 
— Park's Resolution to proceed. 

[1805.] 

On the 30tb of January, 1805, Park sailed from 
Portsmouth in the Crescent transport ; and, after a 
very tedious passage, reached Porto Praya Bay, m 
St. Jago, one of the Cape Verd Islands, on the 8t.h of 
March. In a few days he succeeded in embarking 
forty-four asses, with suppUes of corn and hay ; 
and on the morning of the 28th, anchored in 
Goree roads. After he had consulted with Major 
Lloyd, the commandant, a garrison order was is- 
sued to the effect that, to such of the troops as 
chose to engage in the expedition, double pay du- 
ring the journey would be allowed, and their dis- 
charge given them on their return ; in the course 
of a few days every soldier had volunteered. Lieu- 
tenant Martyn, of the Royal Artillery Corps, having 
likewise offered his services. Park accepted them, 
thinking it would be of consequence to have an of- 
ficer w^ho was acquainted with the men, and who 
could aid him in choosing such as were best able 
to stand fatigue. Two of the best sailors of the 
Squirrel frigate were also selected, in order to as- 
sist in rigging and navigating the Nigritian men 



I 



LETTER. 165 

of war, as Park styles the diminutive vessels m 
which he contemplated sailing down the Niger. 

In a letter which Park wrote to his wife on the 
4th of April, from Goree, he expresses the most de- 
cided confidence of his future success. 

" We have as yet," he says, " been extremely 
fortunate, and have got our business, both at St. 
Jago and this place, finished with great success ; 
and I have hopes, almost to certainty, that Provi- 
dence will so dispose the tempers and passions of 
the inhabitants of this quarter of the world, that we 
shall be enabled to slide through much more smooth- 
ly than you expect. 

" I need not tell you how often I think about 
you ; your own feelings will enable you to judge 
of that. The hopes of spending the remainder of 
my life with my wife and children will make every- 
thing seem easy ; and you may be sure I will not 
rashly risk my life, when I know that your happi- 
ness, and the welfare of my young ones, depend so 
much upon it. I hope my mother does not tor- 
ment herself with unnecessary fears about me. I 
sometimes fancy how you and she will be meeting 
misfortune half way, and placing me in many dis- 
tressing situations. I have as yet experienced 
nothing but success, and I hope that six months 
more will end the whole as I wish." 

On the morning of the 6th of April Park left 
Goree for the Gambia. The soldiers, thirty-five in 
number, jumped into the boats in the highest spir- 
its, and bade adieu to Goree with repeated huzzas. 
So hghtly, indeed, were the dangers of the expe- 
dition there thought of, that Park was obliged to 
refuse the services of several military and Jiaval 



166 park's letter from kayee. 

officers who volunteered to accompany him. " I 
believe," he says, " that every man in the garrison 
would have embarked with great cheerfulness." 
No inducement, however, would prevail on a single 
negro at Goree to go with him ; and therefore he 
had to *' trust to the Gambia for interpreters." 

Proceeding up the river Gambia, the party land- 
ed at Kayee, a small place on the northern bank, 
a little below that factory at Pisania from which 
Park had set out on his first expedition nearly ten 
years before. At Kayee he remained some days, 
making preparations for the journey ; and he there 
engaged a Mandingo priest named Isaaco, who, in 
his secular capacity of a travelling merchant, had 
been much accustomed to long inland journeys, to 
serve as the guide to his caravan. From this 
place he wrote several letters to England, all ex- 
pressing the highest confidence of success. In a 
letter to his wife, dated the 26th, from Kayee, he 
gives an interesting account of his feehngs and 
situation, 

" We set off for the interior," he, says, "to-mor- 
row morning ; and I assure you that, whatever the 
issue of the present journey may be, everything 
looks favourable. We have been successful thus 
far beyond my highest expectations. 

" The natives, instead of being frightened at us, 
look on us as their best friends ; and the kings have 
not only granted us protection, but sent people to 
go before us. The soldiers are in the best spirits ; 
and as many of them (like me) have left a wife and 
family in England, they are happy to embrace this 
opportunity of returning. They never think of dif- 
ficulties ; and I am confident, if there was occa 



park's letter from kayee. 167 

sion for it, that they would defeat any number of 
negroes that might come against us ; but of this 
we iiave not the most distant expectation. The 
King of Kataba (the most powerful king in Gam- 
bia) visited us on board the Crescent on the 20th 
and 21st ; he has furnished us with a messenger to 
conduct us safely to the King of VVooUi. 

" 1 expect to have an opportunity of writing to 
you from Konkodoo or Bammakoo by some of the 
slave traders ; but, as they travel very slowly, I 
may probably have returned to the coast before 
any of my letters have reached Goree ; at any 
rate, you need not be surprised if you should not 
hear from me for some months ; nay, so uncertain 
is the communication between Africa and England, 
that perhaps the next news you hear may be my 
arrival in the latter, which I still think will be in 
the month of December. If we have to go round 
by the West Indies it will take us two months 
more ; but as government has given me an unlimit- 
ed credit, if a vessel is coming direct, I shall, of 
course, take a passage in her. I have enjoyed ex. 
cellent health, and have great hopes to bring this 
expedition to a happy conclusion. In five weeks 
from the date of this letter the worst part of the 
journey will be over. Kiss all my dear children 
for me, and let ihem know that their father loves 
them." 

His other letters of the same date breathe the 
same spirit of confidence. In writing to Sir Jo- 
seph Banks, he promises to " measure Africa by 
feet and inches ;" and to his brother-in-law, Mr. 
Dickson, he thus depicts his feelings : 

" Everything at present looks as favourable as 



168 park's confidence of success. 

I could wish ; and if all things go well, this day six 
weeks I expect to drink all your healths in the wa. 
ter of the Niger. The soldiers are in good health 
and spirits. They are the most dashing set of men 
I ever saw ; and if they preserve their health, we 
may keep ourselves perfectly secure from any hos- 
tile attempt on the part of the natives. 1 have 
little doubt but that I shall be able, with presents 
and fair words, to pass through the country to the 
Niger ; and if once we are fairly afloat, the day is 
won. Give my kind regards to Sir Joseph and 
Mr. Greville ; and if they should think that I have 
paid too little attention to natural objects, you may 
mention that I have forty men and forty-two asses 
to look after, besides the constant trouble of pack- 
ing and weighing bundles, palavering with the ne- 
groes, and laying plans for our future success. I 
never was so busy in my life." 

But, notwithstanding the satisfaction here ex- 
pressed by Park with his position, and his high 
confidence of carrying his enterprise to a favoura- 
ble termination, " nothing," to use the language 
of the editor of his Journal, "could be less prom- 
ising than his actual situation and prospects." 
Although the soldiers whom he had selected from 
the Royal African Corps were the best that the 
garrison of Goree could supply, there is said to be 
" too much reason to believe" that they were infe- 
rior in quality even to the ordinary troops attached 
to a tropical station ; and that they were extreme- 
ly deficient, both in constitutional strength and 
vigour, and in those habits of sobriety, steadiness, 
and discipline which the peculiar service required. 

A more serious cause of alarm was to be found 



DIFFICULTIES OF HIS SITUATION. 169 

in the unfavourable period at which, owing to the 
repeated delays, Park found himself obliged to en- 
ter upon the journey. The rainy season, so fatal to 
Europeans, had not, indeed, actually commenced; 
but there was a great probability that it would 
overtake him before he could reach the Niger, and 
there was a positive certainty that he would en- 
counter not only the great tropical heats, but also 
the tornadoes or hurricanes which always precede 
the rainy season, increasing in frequency and vio. 
lence the nearer it approaches. But his situation 
was critical, and he had only a choice of difficul- 
ties. He might either attempt (what he might, 
perhaps, consider as being just possible) to reach 
the Niger before the rainy season should be com- 
pletely set in, or he might postpone his journey 
till the return of the proper season for travelling, 
which would be in November or December follow- 
ing. • The event has shown that he would have 
acted more wisely in deferring the expedition. 
But the motives which might lead him to a contra- 
ry determination were obvious and powerful, and 
will be found, on the whole, sufficient for the jus- 
tification of his conduct. He must naturally have 
considered that the postponement of the expedition 
for seven months, besides being in the greatest de- 
gree irksome both to himself and the companions 
of his journey, would occasion a great additional 
expense, and disappoint the expectations of gov- 
ernment ; and he might, perhaps, entertain doubts, 
since the case was not provided for by his official 
instructions, whether he should altogether escape 
censure if he should postpone his journey for so 



170 BEGINNING OF THE JOORNEIT. 

long a period, under any circumstances, much short 
of a positive and undoubted necessity. 

In this difficult situation he adopted that alter- 
native which was most congenial to his character 
and feelings ; and having once formed this resolu- 
tion, he adhered to it with tranquillity and firm- 
ness ; dismissing from his own mind all doubts and 
apprehensions, or, at least, effectually concealing 
them from the companions of his journey, and from 
his friends and correspondents in England. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Departure from Kayee and Commencement of the Journey into 
the Interior. — Difficulties of the first Day's March. — Owier of 
Proceeding. — Arrival at Madina. — Rapacity of the King of 
WooUi. — Stratagem of the Soldiers to procure Water at Ka- 
nipe. — Fruit of the Nitta-trees. — Arrival at the Gambia. — 
Death of one of the Soldiers. — Hostile Conduct of the Chief 
at Bady, and the Results. — Attack made upon the Caravan bv 
a Swarm of Bees. — Park's Letters from Badoo. 

[1805.] 

On the 27th of April, 1805, this memorable jour- 
ney began. The first day's march, which exposed 
some of its practical difficulties, is thus recorded in 
Park's Journal, 

" At ten o'clock in the morning we took our de- 
parture from Kayee. The Crescent^ the Washing- 
ton, and Mr. Ainsley's vessel, did us the honour to 
fire a salute at our departure. The day proved 
remarkably hot ; and some of the asses, unaccus 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE FIRST DAy's MARCH. 171 

tomed to carry loads, made our march very fatigu- 
ing and troublesome. Tiiree of them stuck fast 
in a muddy rice-field, about two miles east of 
Kayee ; and while we were employed in getting 
them out, our guide and the people in front had 
gone on so far that we lost sight of them. In a 
short time we overtook about a dozen soldiers and 
their asses, who had likewise fallen behind, and be- 
ing afraid of losing their way, had halted till we 
came up. We, in the rear, took the road to Jon- 
l<:akonda, which place we reached one o'clock ; 
but, not finding Lieutenant Martyn, nor any of the 
men who were in front, concluded they had gone 
by New Jermy, &c. ;. therefore hired a guide and 
continued our march. Halted a few minutes under 
a large tree at the village of Lamain-Cotto, to al- 
low the soldiers to cool themselves ; and then pro- 
ceeded towards Lamain, at which place we arri- 
ved at four o'clock. The people were extremely 
fatigued, having travelled all day under a vertical 
sun, and without a breath of wind. Lieutenant 
Martyn and the rest of our party arrived at half 
past five, having taken the road by New Jermy." 

On the following day, at sunset, they reached 
Pisania, where a delay of six days was found 
necessary, for the purpose of procuring addi- 
tional beasts of burden and distributing the loads. 
On the 4th of May they left Pisania, the mode of 
marching being adjusted as follows. The asses 
and loads being all marked and numbered with red 
paint, a certain number of each was allotted to 
each of the six messes, into which the soldiers 
were divided ; and the asses were farther subdi- 
vided among the individuals of each m©8s, so that 




172 EFFECTS OF THE CLIMATE. 

every man could tell at first sight the ass and load 
which belonged to him. The asses were also 
numbered with large figures, to prevent the natives 
from stealing them, as they could neither wash nor 
clip off the mark without being discovered. Mr. 
George Scott and one of Isaaco's people general- 
ly weat in front, Lieutenant Martyn in the centre, 
and Mr. Anderson and Park himself in the rear. 
This day's march is described as most fatiguing. 
Many of the asses lay down on the road, and oth- 
ers kicked off their bundles. The whole distance 
accomplished, after the utmost exertions, was eight 
miles. 

On the 8th of May the effects of the climate first 
became apparent ; two of the soldiers were then 
attacked with dysentery. On the 10th the party 
reached Tatticonda, where Park had an interview 
with the son of the former king of WooUi, who had 
received him so kindly on his first journey, and 
promised to offer up prayers for his safety. He 
learned from this individual tha-t his present jour- 
ney was viewed with great jealousy by the neigh- 
bouring native traders. 

On th^ 11th, about rKOon, they arrived at Madi- 
na, the capital of the kingdom of WooUi, where 
the system of extortion, so characteristic of African 
monarchs, began to develop itself. The asses were 
unloaded under a tree without the gates of the town, 
and Park waited till ^ve o'clock before he could 
have an audience of his majesty. He took to the 
king a pair of silver mounted pistols, ten dollars, 
ten bars of amber, and ten of coral. His majesty 
looked at, the present with great indiffr^rence for 
some time, and then declared that he could not ac- 



stratage:*! to procure water. 173 

cept it ; alleging, as an excuse for his avarice, that 
a much handsomer one had been given to the King 
of Kataba. " It was in vain," says Park, " that I 
assured him to the contrary ; he positively refused 
to accept it, and I was under the necessity of add- 
ing fifteen dollars, ten bars of coral, and ten of am- 
ber, before his majesty would accept it. After all, 
he begged me to give him a blanket to wrap him- 
self in during the rains, which I readily sent him." 

As far as Madina Park followed the route by 
which he had formerly advanced from the Gambia 
into the interior, but on leaving that town he struck 
out of it, and took the route by which he had re- 
turned from the interior to the Gambia. On the 
13th the party reached the village of Kanipe, 
where some manoeuvring was found necessary 
to procure water. The people of the village had 
heard that they had been obliged to purchase wa- 
ter at Madina, and, to make sure of a similar mar- 
ket, the women had drawn up all the water collect- 
ed in the wells, and were still standing in crowds 
drawing it up as fast as it collected afresh. It was 
in vain that the soldiers attempted to come in for 
their share ; the camp-kettles were by no means so 
well adapted for drawing water as the women's cal- 
abashes. The soldiers therefore returned without 
water, having the laugh very much against them. 

Park received information that there was a pool 
of water about two miles to the south of the town ; 
and, in order to make the women desist, he mount- 
ed a man on each of the horses, and sent them 
away to the pool, to bring as much water as would 
boil the rice, and in the afternoon sent all the asses 
to b^ watered at the same place. In the evening 



174 FRUIT OF THE ?sITTA-TR£E. 

some of the soldiers made another attempt to pro- 
cure water from a large well near the town, and 
succeeded by the following stratagem. One of 
..hem having dropped his canteen into the well, as 
if by accident, his companions fastened a rope 
^ round him, and lowered him down to the bottom 
^of the well, where he stood and filled all the camp- 
kettles, to the great mortification of the women, 
w^ho had been labouring and carrying water for the 
last twenty-four hours, " in hopes of having their 
necks and heads decked with small amber and 
beads by the sale of it." 

On the following day they advanced as far as 
Kussai, a village about four miles to the east of 
Kanipe. Here one of the soldiers, having collect- 
ed some of the fruit of the nitta-trees, was eating 
them, when the chief man of the village came out 
In a great rage, and attempted to take them from 
him ; but, finding that impracticable, he drew his 
knife, and told the travellers to put on their loads 
and get away from the village. " Finding," says 
Park, "that we only laughed at him, he becamg 
more quiet, and I told him that we were unac- 
quainted with so strange a restriction, but should 
be careful not to eat any of them in future ; he 
said that the thing itself was of no great impor- 
tance, if it had not been done in sight of the wom- 
en. For, says he, this place has been frequently 
visited with famine from want of rain, and in these 
distressing times the fruit of the nitta is all vve have 
to trust to, and it may then be opened without 
harm ; but, in order to prevent the women and 
children from wasting this supply, a toong is put 
upon the nittas until famine makes its appearance. 



DEATH OF A SOLDIER. 175 

The word toong is used to express anything sealed 
up by magic." 

On the 15th, at Teelee Corra, they came again 
upon the river Gambia, which, in its course from 
Pisania to this point, bends in a curve to the south- 
ward, so as always to lie at some distance from 
the straight line of route. The name Teelee Cor- 
ra is that of a large tree under which the party 
hahed during the heat of the day. Park was sur- 
prised to find that the river had a regular tide, 
rising four inches by the shore. He says that 
it swarmed with crocodiles, and that he counted 
at one time thirteen of them ranged along the 
shore, besides three hippopotami. A mile farther on 
the party ascended a hill, from which they enjoyed 
a " most enchanting prospect" of the country to 
the westward ; Park styles it, in point of distance, 
the richest he ever saw. At sunset they came to 
a watering-place called Faraba, where the first of 
their calamities befell them. 

While the asses were yet unloading, John Wal- 
ters, one of the soldiers, fell down in an epileptic 
fit, and about an hour afterward he expired. He 
was buried at about three o'clock on the following 
morning ; and a wish is expressed in the Journal^ 
that, in remembrance of him, the place may be ./ 
called Walters' s Well. '^^' 

On the 18th of May they reached Jallacotta, the 
first town in the territory of Tenda ; and on the 
20th stopped at Tendico or Tambico, about half a 
mile to the northward of which lay a pretty large 
town, called Bady, the chief of which took the title 
of Faranba, and, being in a manner independent, 
was in the habit of exacting very high duties from 



176 HOSTILE CONDUCT OF THE CHIEF AT BADY. 

the coffles. To Bady, accordingly, a messenger 
was sent, announcing the arrival of the party, and 
in the evening the faranba sent his son, with twen- 
ty-six men armed with muskets and a great crowd 
of people, to receive what they had to give him. 
Park sent him ten bars of amber by the guide ; but, 
as the chief refused to take it, our traveller himself 
went with five bars of coral : this was likewise re- 
fused. " Indeed," says Park, " I could easily per- 
ceive, from the number of armed men and the 
haughty manner in which they conducted them- 
selves, that there was little prospect of settling 
matters in an amicable manner. I therefore tore 
a leaf from my pocket-book, and had written a note 
to Lieutenant Martyn to have the soldiers in read- 
iness, when Mr. Anderson, hearing such a hubbub 
in the village, came to see what was the matter. 
I explained my doubts to him, and desired that the 
soldiers might have on their pouches and bayonets, 
and be ready for action at a moment's notice. I 
desired Isaaco to inform him that we had as yet 
found no difficulty in our journey ; we had readily 
obtained the permission of the kings of Kataba and 
Woolli to pass through their kingdoms, and that, 
if he would not allow us to pass, we had only to 
return to Jallacotta, and endeavour to find another 
road ; and with this (after a good many angry words 
had passed between the faranba's people and our 
guide) the palaver ended." 

On the following mornmg preparations were 
being made for the return to Jallacotta, when some 
of the faranba's people seized the guide's horse as 
the boy was watering it at the well, and carried it 
ofT. Isaaco went over to Bady to inquire the rea- 



PARK RETALIATES. 177 

son of this conduct ; but, instead of obtaining satis- 
faction on this point, he was seized, deprived of his 
double-barrelled gun and sword, tied to a tree, and 
flogged ; his boy was put in irons, and some people 
were sent back to Tambico for another horse be- 
longing to an old man that was travelling with the 
party to Dentila. Park then told two of Isaaco's 
negroes, that if they would go with him into the 
village and point out the faranba's people (it being 
quite dark) who had come to take the old man's 
horse, he would make the soldiers seize them, and 
retain them as hostages for Isaaco. The negroes 
went and told this to the two chief .men in the vil- 
lage, who declared that they would not permit it. 
They were able, they said, to defend their own 
rights, and would not allow the horse to be taken 
so, "after an immense hubbub and wrangling, the 
business at last came to blows, and the faranba's 
people were fairly kicked out of the village." 

** I was now," says Park, " a little puzzled how 
to act ; Isaaco's wife and child sat crying with us 
under the tree ; his negroes were very much deject- 
ed, and seemed to consider the matter as quite hope- 
less. We could have gone in the night and burned 
the town. By this we should have killed a great 
many innocent people, and most probably should 
not have recovered our guide. I therefore thought 
it most advisable (having consulted with Mr. An- 
derson and Lieutenant Martyn) to wait till morning, 
and then, if they persisted in detaining our guide, 
to attack them in open day, a measure which would 
be more decisive, and more likely to be attended 
with success than any night skirmishes. We ac- 
cordingly placed double sentries during the night, 



178 THE COFFLE ATTACKED BY A SWARM OF BEES. 

and made every man sleep with his loaded musket 
at hand. We likeKvise sent two people hack to 
Jallacotta, to inform the dooty of the treatment we 
had received from the faranba, though at one of the 
towns belonging to the King of WooUi." Early, 
however, on the following morning, Isaaco was hb- 
erated, and in the course of the day his horse was 
recovered, and the tribute was paid to the faranba. 
A few days afterward a singular accident befell 
them. The coffle had halted at a creek, and the 
asses had just been unloaded, whon some of Isaaco's 
people, being in search of honey, '.;nfortunately dis- 
turbed a large swarm of bees near their resting- 
place. The bees came out in immense numbers, 
and attacked men and beasts at the same time. 
Luckily, most of the asses were loose, and galloped 
up the valley ; but the horses and people were very 
much stung, and obliged to scamper in all direc- 
tions. The fire which had been kindled for cook- 
ing, being deserted, spread, and set fire to the bam- 
boos, and the baggage had like to have been burned. 
In fact, for half an hour the bees seemed to have 
completely put an end to the journey. In the even- 
ing, when they became less troublesome, and the 
cattle could be collected, it was found that many of 
them were very much stung, and swollen about the 
head. Three asses were missing ; one died in the 
course of the evening, and one next morning, and 
they were forced to leave one behind the next day. 
Altogether six were lost, besides which, the guide 
lost his horse, and many of the people were very 
much stung about the face and hands.* 

* The occurrence of accidents of this nature seems to be not 
at all uncommon. Park mentions a similar attack by bees in hia 



PARK WRITES FROM BADOO. 179 

On the 28th of May the party reached Badoo, 
whence, on the following day, Park had an oppor- 
tunity of sending two letters to England by a Sla- 
tee who was going to the Gambia. In these he 
spoke confidently of success, and announced his 
expectation of reaching the Niger by the 27th of 
June ; " and when," he adds, writing to his wife, 
" we have once got afloat on the river, we shall 
conclude that we are embarking for England," 
In the same letter he says, " I am in great hopes 
of finishing this journey with great credit in a few 
months ; and then with what joy shall I turn my 
face towards home !" 

first journey (see page 148) ; and his guide Isaaco, in a journey 
made in 1810, 11, thus records another, as happening to his peo- 
ple. " When on the very top of the hill, they were surrounded 
and attacked by such a quantity of bees, that my people and 
beasts of burden were scattered ; when they were a little ap- 
peased, we went after our beasts, who had thrown away every- 
thing they had on their backs. I found one of my asses dead, 
being stifled by the bees getting mto its nostrils, and one of my 
men almost dead by their stmgs. I had to give him something 
to bring- him to life, and that with a great deal of pains." 



180 BEGINNING OF THE EAINY SEASON. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Commencement of the Rainy Season. — Alarming Sickness. 
— Gold Mines at Shrondo.— Arrival ac Fankia.— Difficult 
Mountain Pass. — Increase of the Sick. — Hostility of the Na- 
tives at Gimbia.— Face of the Country.— Its romantic Char- 
acter. — Sickness of the Men. — Park's personal Exertions. — 
Dangers from young Lions. — The Guide seized by a Croco- 
dile. — His Expedient to Escape. — Arrival at Keminoom. — 
Depredations of the Natives. — Continued Sickness. — Five 
Men left behind. — Illness of Mr. Anderson. — Park's Escape 
from three Lions.— His View of the Niger. 

[1805.] 

It was on the 29th of May that Park wrote his 
cheerful letters from Badoo ; within a fortnight 
afterward he " trembled at his situation." The 
cause of this fearful change was the rapid ap- 
proach of the rainy season. On the 30th of May 
" some drops of rain" fell. On the night of the 
5th of June, at Baniserile, there was " a squall, 
with thunder and rain;" the loads having been put 
into the tent, were not wetted ; but one of the car- 
penters, who was recovering from an attack of 
dysentery, became " greatly worse." On the fol- 
lowing morning this man was so very weak that 
two soldiers were appointed to attend him and 
drive his ass. On the next day he became unable 
to sit upright, and frequently threw himself from 
the ass, *' wishing to be left to die ;" so that two of 
the soldiers held him by force upon the beast. In 
the afternoon he was " still more weak, and ap- 



ITS DISASTROUS EFFECTS. 181 

parently dying ;" Park therefore thought it best to 
leave him at a village on the route until the follow- 
ing morning, under the care of one of the soldiers. 
At eight o'clock, however, on the same evening, 
the poor man died, and, with the assistance of the 
negroes, was buried in the native place of sepul- 
ture. 

On the same night (that of the 8th), the party 
were overtaken by a heavy tornado, with thunder 
and lightning ; and on the next day five of the sol- 
diers, who had stood under a tree instead of going 
into the tent, complained much of headache and 
pains in the stomach. On the 10th they halted 
at Shrondo, under a tree, and, before they could 
pitch one of the tents, they were overtaken by a 
very heavy tornado, which wetted them all com- 
pletely. Park's hat was blown away and lost, as 
he attempted to fasten one of the tents to a branch 
of the tree ; and the ground all round was covered 
with water three inches deep. Another tornado 
visited them in the night, 

" The tornado which took place on our arrival," 
says Park, " had an instant effect on the health of 
the soldiers, and proved to us to be the beginning of 
sorrow, I had proudly flattered myself that we 
should reach the Niger with a very moderate loss ; 
we had had two men sick of the dysentery ; one 
of them recovered completely on the march, and 
the other would doubtless have recovered, had he 
not been wet by the rain at Baniserile. But now 
the rain had set in, and I trembled to think that 
we were only half way through our journey. The 
rain had not commenced three minutes before 
many of the soldiers were affected with vomiting ; 



# 

192 GOLD 3IINES AT SHPwONDO. 

Others fell asleep, and seemed as if half intoxica- 
ted. 1 felt a strong inclination to sleep during the 
storm, and, as soon as it was over, I fell asleep on 
the wet ground, although 1 used every exertion 
to keep myself awake. The soldiers likewise fell 
asleep on the wet bundles." On the following day 
twelve of them were sick. 
i^ While the caravan was at Shrondo, Park visited 
" the gold mines in its vicinity. These he found to 
consist of about thirty pits, resembling wells, dug 
to the depth of ten or twelve feet, in a meadow- 
spot of about four or five acres in extent ; close to 
these mine pits were other shallow wash.pits, and 
between them were several heaps of sandy gravel. 
The dooty's permission to inspect the mines had 
been previously obtained ; and our trav^eller was ac- 
companied by a woman, to whom he had promised 
to pay a bar of amber if she showed him a grain 
of gold. 

The w^oman took about half a pound of the grav- 
el from a heap which apparently belonged to her, 
^ and, having put it into a large calabash, threw a 
little water on it with a small calabash, these two 
calabashes comprising all the apparatus necessary 
for washing gold. The quantity of water was only 
sufficient to cover the sand about one inch. The 
woman then crumbled the sand to pieces and mix- 
ed it with water ; this she did, not in a rotatory 
manner, but by pulling her hands towards herself, 
as shown in the vignette in our title-page. She 
then threw out all the large pebbles, looking on the 
ground where they fell to see if she had thrown 
out a piece of gold. The next step was to give 
the mixture a rotatory motion, so as to make a 



GOLD MINES AT SHKOiXDO. 183 

part of the sand and water fly over the brim of the 
calabash ; and while she accomplished this with 
her right hand, with her left she threw out of the 
centre of the vortex a portion of sand and water at 
every revolution. She then put in a little fresh 
water, and as the quantity of sand was now great- 
ly diminished, she held the calabash in an oblique 
direction, and made the sand move slowly round, 
while she constantly agitated it with a quick mo- 
tion to and from herself. " I now observed," says 
Park, " a quantity of black matter resembling gun- 
powder, which she told me was gold-rust ; and, be- 
fore she had moved the sand one quarter round the 
calabash, she pointed to a yellow sp^eck and said, 
' sanoo affili^ (see the gold). On looking atten- 
tively, I saw a portion of pure gold, and took it out. 
It would have weighed about one grain. The 
whole of the washing, from the first putting in of 
the sand till she showed me the gold, did not ex- 
ceed the space of two minutes, 1 now desired her 
to take a larger portion. She put in, as nearly as 
I could guess, about two pounds, and having wash- 
ed it in the same manner and nearly the same 
time, found no fewer than twenty three particles; 
some of them were very small. In both cases I 
observed that the quantity of sanoo mira, or gold^ 
rust, was at least forty times greater than the 
quantity of gold. She assured me that they some- 
times found pieces of gold as large as her fist." 
Park was unable to ascertain the quantity of gold 
washed at this place in one year, but he believed 
it to be considerable ; though the natives wash only 
during the beginning and end of the rains. 

On leaving Shrondo upon the 12th of June, the 



184 DIFFICULT MOUNTAI>' PASS. 

sick were unable to walk ; and at noon a tornado 
came on so suddenly, that it was necessary to 
carry the bundles into the huts of the natives : in 
the evening Lieutenant Martyn fell ill of the fever. 
On the following day Park became " very uneasy" 
at his situation, one half of the people being either 
sick of the fever, or unable to use great exertion, 
and fatigued in driving the asses. " I did not 
reach Fankia," he says, " till seven o'clock, having 
to walk slow in order to coax on three sick sol- 
diers who had fallen behind, and were for lying 
down under every tree they passed." 

The next day was spent at Fankia, in order to 
give the sick a little rest : Park found himself very 
ill, having been feverish all night. Upon leaving 
this place on the 15th, some of the men were 
shghtly delirious ; and about a mile beyond it the 
party came to a mountain pass, the steep and rocky 
ascent of which severely tried their diminished 
strenijth. " The asses beinor heavilv loaded, in 
order to spare as many as possible for the sick," 
says Park, " we had much difficulty in getting our 
loads up this steep. The number of asses exceed- 
ing the drivers, presented a dreadful scene of con- 
fusion in this rocky staircase ; loaded asses tum- 
bling over the rocks, sick soldiers unable to walk, 
black fellows stealing ; in fact, it certainly was 
up-hill-work with us at this place." When the as- 
cent was at last accomphshed, it was found that 
the natives had stolen seven pistols, two great 
coats, and one knapsack, besides several smaller 
articles. 

On the morrow, after recovering some of the 
stolen articles, the party set forward, Park follow- 



HOSTILITY OF THE NATIVES AT GIMBIA. 185 

ing behind. When he had advanced about a mile, 
he found Hinton, one of the sick, who rode Mr. 
Anderson's horse, lying under a tree, and the horse 
grazing at a little distance. '' Some of the na- 
tives," he says in his Journal, " had stolen the pis- 
tols from the holsters, and robbed my coat-case, 
which was fastened behind the saddle, of a string 
of coral, all the amber and beads it contained, and 
one barraloolo [fowling-piece]. Luckily, they did 
not fancy my pocket sextant and artificial horizon, 
which were in the same place. I put the sick man 
on the horse and drove it before me ; and after 
holding him on, and using every exertion to keep 
him on the saddle, I found that I was unable to 
carry him on ; and, having fatigued myself very 
much with carrying him forward about six miles, 
I was forced to leave him." 

About a mile farther on Park came to two other 
men lying in the shade of a tree ; he mounted one 
on Mr. Anderson's horse, and the other on his 
own, and drove them before him. In the cool of 
the evening he sent back a horse for Hinton, who 
was brought to the village, tied upon the animal. 
On the following day, Hinton and another of the 
sick men were left behind, to the care of the dooty 
of the village at which the party had halted for the 
night : amber and beads were given to him suffi- 
cient to purchase victuals for them if they lived, 
and to bury them if they died. Three days after- 
ward another of the soldiers was left behind in a 
similar manner ; and so again, in two days more, 
was one of the carpiejal^U^Sa^ 

One very unpleasant result of the sickness which 
enfeebled the party was this, that it encouraged 



186 HOSTILITY OF THE >*ATIV£S AT GDIBIA. 

the natives to greater boldness in the practice of 
extortion, and even open' pilfering. A remarkable 
instance occurred on the 23d of June, at the village 
of Gimbia or Kimbia. Park chanced to be in the 
rear, bringing on some asses which had thrown off 
their loads ; and when he came up, he found all 
about the village wearing a hostile appearance, the 
men running from the corn-grounds, and putting 
on their quivers, &c. " The cause of this tumult," 
he says, " was, as usual, the Jove of money. The 
villagers had heard that the white men were to 
pass ; that they were very sickly, and unable to 
make any resistance, or to defend the immense 
wealth in their possession. Accordingly, when 
part of the coffle had passed the village, the peo- 
ple sallied out, and. under pretence that the coffle 
should not pass till the dooty pleased, insisted on 
turning back the asses. One of them seized the 
sergeant's horse by the bridle to lead it into the 
village ; but, when the sergeant cocked his pistol 
and presented it, he dropped the bridle : others 
drove away the asses with their loads, and every- 
thing seemed going into confusion. The soldiers, 
with great coolness, loaded their pieces with ball 
and fixed their bayonets : on seeing this, the vil- 
lagers hesitated, and the soldiers drove the asses 
across the bed of a torrent, and then returned, 
leaving a sufficient number to guard the asses. 

'• The natives collected themselves together un- 
der a tree by the gate of the village, where I found 
the dooty and Isaaco at very high words. On in- 
quiring the cause of the tumult, Isaaco informed 
me that the villagers had attempted to take the 
loads from the asses. I turned to the dooty, and 



PICTURESQUE SCENERY. 187 

asked him who were the persons that had dared to 
make such an attempt. He pointed to about thirty 
people, armed with bows ; on which I fell a laugh- 
ing, and asked him if he really thought that" such 
people could fight ; adding, if he had a mind to 
make the experiment, they need only go up and 
attempt to take off one of the loads. They seem- 
ed by this time to be fully satisfied that they had 
made a vain attempt ; and the dooty desired me to 
tell the men to go forward with the asses. As I 
did not know but perhaps some of the sick might 
be under the necessity of returning this way, I 
thought it advisable to part on friendly terms, and 
therefore gave the dooty four bars of amber, and 
told him that we did not come to make war ; but 
if any person made war on us, we would defend 
ourselves to the last." 

The country through which the party were now 
travelling was very rocky ; rugged and grand, to 
use Park's expression, beyond anything he had 
seen. On leaving Fankia upon the 15th of June, 
he had deviated from the route by which he had 
returned to the Gambia on his former journey, and 
followed one not so much inclined to the south- 
ward ; his object was probably to avoid the Jal- 
lonka Wilderness, the horrors of which he had then 
experienced. On the 24th of June he describes 
the country as beautiful beyond imagination, with 
all the possible diversities of rock, sometimes tow- 
ering up like ruined castles, spires, pyramids, &;c. 
'* We passed one place," he says, " so like a ruin- 
ed Gothic abbey, that we halted a Httle before we 
could satisfy ourselves that the niches, windows, 
ruined staircase, &;c., were all natural rock. A 
P 



188 INCREASING DIFFICULTIES* 

faithful description of this place would certainly be 
deemed a fiction." He mentions several villages 
romantically situated in the crescents formed by 
rocky precipices, whose perpendicular height va- 
ried from one to five or six hundred feet. 

On the 27th, in crossing the Bajing, a principal 
branch of the Senegal, one of the men was drown- 
ed from the upsetting of a canoe. The river was 
crowded with hippopotami, whose snorting and 
blowing during the night kept the party awake. 
The natives here are emphatically described as all 
thieves ; they attempted to steal several of the 
loads, and one of them. was detected in the act of 
carrying away the bundle which contained all the 
medicines. On the following day another of the 
sick men died. He had become so much exhaust- 
ed that he could not sit upon his ass ; he was then 
fastened upon it, but he became more and more 
faint, and shortly after died. " He was brought 
forward," says Park, " to a place where the front 
of the coffle had halted to allow the rear to come 
up. Here, when the coffle had set forward, two 
of the soldiers with their bayonets, and myself 
with my sword, dug his grave in the wild desert •, 
and a few branches were the only laurels which 
covered the tomb of the brave." 

In the midst of these disheartening circumstan- 
ces Park was indefatigable in his attention to those 
under his care ; when any became faint and weary 
and wished to lay down and die, he used every in- 
ducement to coax them onward ; and when thev 
had lagged behind or wandered from the track, he 
spared no exertions to recover them. The hard- 
ships which he personally encountered were very 



park's exertions, 189 

great. In the course of the journey of the 29th, 
one of the soldiers, named Bloore, sat down under 
the shade of a tree, and when Park desired him to 
proceed, he said that he was rather fatigued, and 
that he would follow when he had cooled himself 
Some time after the coffle had hahed, he had not 
come up, and the sergeant was sent on a horse to 
bring him forward, but returned without having 
seen him. 

" I suspected," says Park, " that the sergeant 
might have rode past him under the tree ; I there- 
fore got three volunteers to go with me and look 
for him. It was quite dark. We collected a 
large bundle of dry grass, and, taking out a hand- 
ful at a time, kept up a constant light, in order to 
frighten the lions, which are very numerous in these 
woods. When we reached the tree under which 
he lay down, we made a fire ; saw the place where 
he had pressed down the grass, and the marks of 
his feet ; went to the west along the pathw^ay, and 
examined for the marks of his feet, thinking he 
might possibly have mistaken the direction ; found 
none ; fired several muskets, hallooed, and set 
fire to the grass ; returned to the tree, and exam- 
ined all around ; saw no blood, nor the footmarks 
of any wild beasts ; fired six muskets more. As 
any farther search was likely to be fruitless (for we 
did not dare to walk far from the track for fear of 
losing ourselves), we returned to the tents." 

On the 2d of July, another of the soldiers, who 
had become very delirious, was left behind ; and in 
the afternoon. Park himself felt very sickly, having 
lifted up and reloaded a great many asses on the 
road. In the night, as the party were resting at 



190 DANGER FR03I YOUNG LION'S. 

the village of Koeena, they were much incommo- 
ded by the wild beasts. A severe tornado, at sev. 
en o'clock, had put out the watch-fire, and made 
them all crowd into the tents. When tlie violence 
of the squall was over, they heard a particular sort 
of roaring or growhng, not unlike the noise of a 
wild boar ; there seemed to be several animals 
making a circuit round the cattle. Two muskets 
were tired to make them keep at a distance ; but, 
as they still kept prowling about, our travellers 
collected a bunch of withered grass and went in 
search of them, suspecting them to be wild boars. 
" We got near one of them," says Park, " and fired 
several shots i^to the bush, and one at him as he 
went off among the long grass. When we re- 
turned to the tents, I learned, by inquiring of the 
natives, that the animals we had been in search of 
were not boars, but young lions ; and they assured 
me that, unless we kept a very good look-out, they 
would probably kill some of our cattle during the 
night. About midnight these young lions attempt- 
ed to seize one of the asses, which so much alarmed 
the rest that they broke their ropes and came at 
full gallop in among the tent-ropes. Two of the 
lions followed them, and came so close to us that 
the sentry cut at one of them with his sword, but 
did not dare to fire for fear of killing the asses." 

On the afternoon of the following day. Park's 
brother-in-law, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Scott, the 
draughtsman of the expedition, were so sick that 
they wished to remain for the night where they were. 
*< With much entreating," they were persuaded to 
mount their horses and go on. Three miles far- 
ther, one of the seaman who had been received from 



THE GUIDE SEIZED BY A CROCODILE 191 

his majesty's ship Squirrel became so faint that he 
fell from his ass, arid allowed the animal to run 
away. Park placed him on his own horse, but 
found that he could not sit without being support- 
ed. The poor man was then replaced on the ass, 
but he still tumbled off; he was then again put on 
the horse, and, while one man kept him upright, 
Park led the horse. But, as he made no exertion to 
keep himself erect, it was impossible to hold him on 
the horse, and, after repeated tumbles, he begged to 
be left in the woods till morning. Park left a load 
ed pistol with him, and put some cartridges into the 
crown of his hat. The next day the man made 
his way after the party, and presented himself quite, 
naked, having been stripped of his clothes by three 
of the natives during the night : his fever wa& 
much abated. 

On the following day, hkewise, a serious acci- 
dent occurred to the guide, Isaaco, at the crossing 
of the Wonda, one of the affluents of the Senegal. 
As there was but one canoe for the service, it was 
near noon before all the bundles were carried over. 
The transporting of the asses was very difficult. 
The river was shallow and rocky, and whenever 
their feet touched the bottom they generally stood 
still. Isaaco was very active in pushing the asses 
into the water and shoving along the canoe ; but, 
as he was afraid that they would not be all carried 
over in the course of the day, he attempted to drive 
six of them across the river, farther down, where 
the water was shallower. When he had reached 
the middle of the river, a crocodile rose close to 
him, and, instantly seizing him by the left thigh, 
pulled him under water. With wonderful presence 



192 ISAACO'S PEESENCE OF MIND. 

of mind, he felt for the head of the animal, and 
thrust his finger into its eye ; on which it quitted 
its hold, and Isaaco attempted to reach the farther 
shore, calling out for a knife. But the crocodile 
returned and seized him by the other thigh, and 
again pulled him under water ; he had recourse to 
the same expedient, and thrust his fingers into its 
eyes with such violence that it again quitted him, 
and when it ros©, flounced about on the surface of 
the water as if stupid, and then swam down the 
middle of the river.* Isaaco proceeded to the oth- 
er side, bleeding very much. As soon as the ca- 
noe returned. Park went over, and found him very 
much lacerated. The wound on the left thigh was 
four inches in length ; that on the right not quite so 

* Humboldt mentions a similar incident which he learned at 
San Fernando, on the river Apure, in South America. "They 
related to us," he says, " the history of a young girl of Uritu- 
cu, who, by singular intrepidity and presence of mind, saved 
herself from the jaws of a crocodile. When she felt herself 
seized, she sought the eyes of the animal, and plunged her fin- 
gers into them with such violence that the pain forced the croc- 
odile to let her loose, after having bitten off the lower part of 
her arm. The girl, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of 
blood she had lost, happily reached the shore, swimming with 
the hand she had still left. In those desert countries, where 
man is ever wrestling with nature, discourse daily turns on the 
means that may be employed to escape from a tiger, a boa or 
traga venado, or a crocodile ; every one prepares himself, m some 
sort, for the dangers that await him. ' I knew,' said the young 
girl of Uritucu, ' that the cayman lets go his hold if you push 
your fingers into his eyes.' Long after my return to Europe, 1 
learned that, in the interior of Africa, the negroes know and 
practise the same means. Who does not recollect, with a lively 
interest, Isaaco, the guide of the unfortunate Mungo Park, 
seized twice, near Boolinkoomboo, by a crocodile, and twice 
escaping from the jaws of the monster, having succeeded in 
placing his fingers, under water, in both his eyes ? The African 
Isaaco and the young American owed their safety to the same 
presence of mind, and the same combination of ideas." 



park's perplexing situation. 193 

large, but very deep ; and there were, besides, sev- 
eral single teelh-vvoundb on his back. Park dressed 
the wounds as well as the circumstances would per- 
mit, and sent the man on to the next village, Boo- 
linkoomboo, whither the whole party followed the 
next day. 

" I now found my situation," says Park, " very 

i)erplexing. To go forward without Isaaco to 
{^eminoom, 1 knew would involve us in difficulties, 
as Keminoom's sons are reckoned the greatest 
thieves and blackguards on the whole route. To 
stop till Isaaco recovered (an event which seemed 
very doubtful) would throw us into the violence of 
the rains. There was no other person that I could 
trust ; and, what was worst of all, we had only two 
days'' rice, and a great scarcity prevailed in the 
country. I determined to wait three days to see 
how Isaaco's wounds looked, and in the mean time 
sent two of his people away to Serracorra, with an 
ass and three strings of No. 5 amber, to purchase 
rice." On the following day all the people were 
either sick or in a state of great debility, one only 
excepted. 

On the 10th, the guide having partially recov- 
ered, and a supply of rice having been obtained, 
the party set forward ; and on the following day 
they reached Keminoom or Maniakorro, a walled 
town, " fqni&ed- in tb^ -strongest manner," says 
Park, '^1 have yet seen in Africa." After staying a 
day to give Mansa Numma, the chief, his present. 
Park became very desirous to depart, as he found 
the people "thieves to a man ; in fact," he says, 
" we have never yet been in a place where so much 
theft and impudence prevail." 



194 DEPREDATIOx\S OF THE NATIVES. 

Accordingly, at dawn on the 14th, the tents were 
struck and the asses loaded. The townspeople 
had stolen, during the stay of the party, four great- 
coats, a large bundle of beads, a nriusket, a pair of 
pistols, and several other things. Before the cof- 
fle advanced a musket-shot from the town (though 
one of the king's sons attended on horseback as a 
protector), one of the townspeople carried away a 
bag from one of the asses. The king's son, Lieu- 
tenant Martyn, and Park rode after him and recov- 
ered the bag ; but, before they could rejoin the 
coffle, another thief had run off with a musket 
that was fastened on one of the loads. 

" We proceeded in this manner," says Park, " in 
a constant state of alarm ; and I had great reason 
to fear that the impudence of the people would pro- 
voke some of the soldiers to run them through with 
their bayonets. About two miles from Maniakor- 
ro, as we were ascending a rocky part of the road, 
several of the asses fell with their loads. I rode a 
little from the path, to see if a more easy ascent 
could not be found ; and as 1 was holding my mus- 
ket carelessly in my hand, and looking round, two of 
Numma's sons came up to me ; one of them re- 
quested me to give him some snuff. Suspecting no 
ill-treatment from two people whom I had often 
seen with the king and at our tents, I turned round 
to assure him that I never took snuff; at this in 
stant, the other (called Woosaba), coming up be- 
hind me, snatched the musket from my hand and 
ran off with it. I instantly sprang from my sad- 
dle and followed him with my sword, calling to 
Mr. Anderson to ride back and tell some of my 
people to look after my horse. Mr. Anderson got 



DEPREDATJONS OE THE NATIVES 195 

within musket-shot of him, but, seeing it was Num- 
ma's son, had some doubts about shooting him, and 
called to me if he should fire. Luckily I did not 
hear him, or I might possibly have recovered my 
musket at the risk of a long palaver, and perhaps 
the loss of half our baggage. The thief accord- 
ingly made his escape among the rocks, and, when 
I returned to my horse, I found the other of the roy- 
al descendants had stolen my greatcoat." 

Park informed the king's son, whom he had hi- 
red as a guide, of what had happened ; and request- 
ed to know how he should act if any of the people 
should steal articles from the baggage. He was 
assured that, after what had happened, he would 
be justified in shooting the first that attempted to 
steal ; and he then made such of the soldiers as 
were near him load their muskets and be ready. 
The sky became cloudy, and, by the time- that they 
had advanced about five miles from the town, they 
experienced a very heavy tornado. During the 
rain, another of Numma's sons snatched up and 
ran off with one of the soldiers' muskets and a pair 
of pistols, which the owner had laid down while 
reloading his ass. 

The depredations of the natives were continued 
with the same boldness until the cofile reached the 
Ba Woolima river on the 19th of July. The da- 
ring of the thieves was extraordinary ; some would 
be very busy assisting the party to load their asses, 
while their comrades were peeping over the rocks 
and making signs to them. On one occasion, a* 
negro slave came out of the bushes against a sin. 
gle soldier, and endeavoured forcibly to wrest his 
musket and knapsack from him. On the 18th, 



196 BOLDNESS AND ACTIVITY 

the party had not travelled much above a mile 
from their resting-place when two suspicious peo- 
ple came up. One of them walked slowly in the 
rear, and the other passed on, seemingly in great 
haste. " 1 desired Mr. Anderson," says Park, " to 
watch the one in the rear, while I rode on at such 
a distance as just to keep sight of the other. The 
road making a turn, he was concealed from me by 
the bushes, and took advantage of this opportunity 
to carry away a greatcoat from a load which was 
driven by one of the sick men. I fortunately got 
a view of him as he was running off among the 
bushes, and, galloping in a direction so as to get 
before him, quickly came so near him that he leap- 
ed into some very thick bushes. When I rode 
round he went out at the side opposite to me ; and 
in this manner I hunted him among the bushes for 
some time, but never losing sight of him. At last 
he ran past a spreading tree, and, jumping back, 
stood close to the trunk of it. I thought I should 
certainly lose him if I did not avail myself of the 
present opportunity. I accordingly fired, and 
dropping my musket on the pummel of my saddle, 
drew out one of the pistols, and told him if he of- 
fered to move I would instantly shoot him dead. 
* Do not kill me, white man,' he exclaimed ; ' I can- 
not run from you, you have broke my leg.' I now 
observed the blood streaming down his leg ; and 
when he pulled up his cloth, I saw that the ball had 
passed through his leg, about two inches below the 
■ knee-joint. He climbed a httle way up the tree, 
which was of easy ascent, always exclaiming in a 
pitiable tone of voice. 'Do not kill me.' Several 
of the people belonging to the coffle, on hearing 



OF THE ROBBERS. 197 

the shot fired, came running ; and, among others, 
the guide appointed us by Keminoom, who insisted 
that I should instantly shoot the thief dead ; other- 
wise, he said, I did not fulfil the orders of his mas- 
ter, who had directed me to shoot every person that 
stole from me. I had great difficulty in preventing 
him from killing him, and was happy to recover 
the greatcoat, and leave the thief bleeding among 
the branches of the tree." 

On the afternoon of the same day, during a tor- 
nado, one of the sick fell a little behind, and four 
people seizing him, stripped him of his jacket. 
He followed them at a distance ; and when he came 
up to Mr. Anderson and Park, he called out to 
shoot one of them, as they had taken his jacket. 
Park had his pocket handkerchief on the lock of 
his gun to keep the priming dry, and when the 
thieves observed him remove it, one of them pulled 
out the jacket from under his cloak, and laid it on 
one of the asses. Mr. Anderson followed them 
on horseback, and Park kept as near them as he 
could on foot, his horse being loaded. After they 
had been followed for about three miles, they struck 
into the woods ; and Park, suspecting that they 
had a mind to return and steal some of the loads 
from the fatigued asses in the rear, returned with 
Mr. Scott, when he found that another party had 
robbed one of the soldiers of his knapsack, and 
another of his jacket. 

On the 20th of July the party crossed the Ba 
Woolima, on a temporary bridge constructed in a 
few hours by the negroes. Here one of the sol- 
diers was left in a dying state, and on the follow- 
ing day, Lieutenant Martyn and Mr. Scott both lay 



193 PART OF TUE SOLDIERS LEFT BEHIND. 

down on the road, unable to proceed. They were 
afterward brouorht lorward on asses. At Bangras- 
si, on the 26th, the corporal died ; and there one 
of the soldiers was left verv ill. On the following 
day, after marching a short distance, three of the 
soldiers lay down and refused to proceed ; one of 
the carpenters brought from Portsmouxh did like- 
wise. It was on the 27th also that Park came to 
an eminence, from which he had a view of some 
very distant mountains to the southeast. " The 
certainty that the Niger washed the base of those 
mountains made him forget his fever, and he 
thought of nothing all the w^ay but how to chmb 
over their blue summits." 

In the afternoon they reached Nummasoolo, 
where, before they had time to pitch their tent 
properly, the rain came down and wetted complete- 
ly both men and bundles. This was ** a very se- 
rious affair," many of the articles of merchandise 
being perishable. The party slept very uncom- 
fortably in wet clothes on the wet ground, and 
were troubled in the night with a lion, w4io came 
so near that the sentry tired at him, but it w^as so 
dark that it was impossible to take a good aim. 
All the asses pulled up the pins to wiiich they were 
fastened, and ran together as near the men as* they 
could. As the sick soldiers who had refused to 
proceed did not come up before sunset, Park con- 
cluded they had all returned to Bangassi ; and the 
dooty's son arriving upon horseback, informed him 
that they had really returned to his father's house, 
and wished to know what it was meant to do re- 
specting them. Park said that he wished his peo- 
pie to be taken proper care of, and gave the man 



ILLNESS OF MR. A.NDERSON. 199 

ten bars of amber for informing him of them ; and 
likewise put into his possession three strings of 
amber of forty bars each, to be disposed of for the 
use of the sick. Park also promised him a pres- 
ent if he would send a proper person forward with 
any of them who recovered to Bambakoo ; and, 
at the same time, sent the following note to the 
men : 

" Dear Soldiers, 
'' I am sorry to learn that you have returned to 
Bangassi. I have sent in charge of the bearer 
of this three complete strings of amber, one of 
which will procure rice for forty days ; the second 
will purchase milk or fowls for the same time ; and 
the third will buy provisions for you on the road 
till you arrive at the Niger. Yours, 

" M. Park." 

As Park advanced, his losses from sickness in- 
creased. On the 10th of August, as he came to a 
stream, he found Mr. Anderson lying under a bush 
apparently dying, and was obliged to carry him 
across the stream. On the following day Mr. An- 
derson continued in a very dangerous way, and 
on the 12th Park led his horse by the bridle, that 
he might have no trouble but that of sitting on the 
saddle. At half past twelve o'clock Mr. Ander- 
son declared he could ride no farther ; Park laid 
him in the shade of a bush, and sat down beside 
him. At half past two he made another attempt 
to proceed, but had not rode above a hundred yards 
before Park had to take him down from the saddle 
and lay him again in the shade. " I now," he says, 



200 park's danger from lions. 

" gave up all thoughts of being able to carry him 
forward till the cool of the evening ; and, having 
turned the horses and asses to feed, sat down to 
watch tlie pulsations of my dying friend." 

At half past five o'clock, there being a fine 
breeze from the southwest, Mr. Anderson agreed 
to make another attempt, and Park having again 
placed him on the saddle, led the horse on pretty 
smartly, in hopes of reaching Koomikoomi before 
dark. They had not proceeded above a mile, before 
they heard on their left a noise very much Ifke the 
barking of a large mastiff, but ending in a hiss. 
Park thought that it must be a large monkey ; and 
was observing to Mr. Anderson, " What a boun- 
cing fellow that must be," when they heard anoth- 
er bark nearer to them, and presently a third still 
nearer, accompanied with a growl. " I now sus- 
pected," he says, " that some wild animal meant to 
attack us, but could not conjecture of what species 
it was likely to be. We had not proceeded a hun- 
dred yards farther, when, coming to an opening in 
the bushes, I was not a little surprised to see three 
lions coming towards us. They were not so red 
as the lion 1 formerly saw in Bambarra, but of a 
dusky colour, like the colour of an ass. They 
were very large, and came bounding over the long 
grass, not one after another, but all abreast of each 
other. I was afraid, if I allowed them to come too 
near us, and my piece should miss fire, that we 
should be all devoured by them. I therefore let 
go the bridle, and walked forward to meet them. 
As soon as they were within a long shot of me, I 
fired at the centre one. I do not think I hit him, 
but they all stopped, looked at each other, and then 



HIS ARRIVAL AT THE NIGER, 201 

bounded away a few paces, when one of them stop- 
ped and looked back at me. I was too busy in 
loading my piece to observe their motions as they 
went away, and was very happy to see the last of 
them march slowly off among the bushes. We 
had not proceeded above half a mile farther, when 
we heard another bark and growl close to us 
among the bushes. This was doubtless one of the 
lions before seen, and I was afraid they would fol- 
low us till dark, when they would have too many 
opportunities of springing on us unawares. I 
therefore got Mr. Anderson's call, and made as 
ioud a whistling and noise as possible. We heard 
no more of them." 

On the 13th Park reached Koomikoomi, where 
lie again joined the route by which he returned in 
1797. At Doombila, which he entered on the 
i5th, he met with Karfa Taura, his kind friend 
ivho had entertained him at Kamalia on his former 
journey for so many months, and then conveyed 
nim to the Gambia. On the 19th, at about three 
o'clock in the afternoon. Park gained the summit 
of the ridge which separates the Niger from the 
remote branches of the Senegal ; and, advancing to 
die brow of the hill, once more saw the Niger roll- 
ing its immense streams along the plain ! 

" After the fatiguing march," he says, " which 
we had experienced, the sight of this river was no 
doubt pleasant, as it promised an end to, or at least 
an alleviation of, our toils. But when I reflected 
that three fourths of the soldiers had died on their 
march ; and that, in addition to our weakly state, 
we had no carpenters to build the boats, in which 
we promised to prosecute our discoveries, the pros- 



202 park's distressing situation. 

pect appeared somewhat gloomy. It, however, af- 
forded me peculiar pleasure, when I reflected that, 
in conducting a party of Europeans, with immense 
baggage, through an extent of more than five hun- 
dred miles, I had always been able to preserve the 
most friendly terms with the natives. In fact, this 
journey plainly demonstrates: first, that, with com- 
mon prudence, aiiy quantity of merchandise may be 
transported from the Gambia to the Xiger. without 
danger of being robbed by the natives ; secondly, 
that if this journey be performed in the dry season, 
one may calculate on losing not more than three, 
or, at most, four men out of fiftv." 



CHAPTER XVIL 

Distressing Situation of Park. — His Embarcation on the Niger. 
— His Arrival at Marraboo. — At Samee. — His Speech to Man- 
song^'s Prime Minister.— Mansong's Reply.— Park's Arrival at 
Sansanding.— His Description of that Town.— His successful 
Tradin? there.— Death of his Brother-in-law. Mr. Anderson. 
—Completion of the Schooner Joliba.— Last Letters received 
from Park. 

[1505.] 

Park's situation, on arriving at length upon the 
banks of the Niger, was very distressing. Of thir- 
tv-four soldiers and four carpenters who left the 
Gambia, only six soldiers and one carpenter reach- 
ed that river. ISlr, Anderson, Lieutenant Martyn, 
and Mr. Scott were seriously affected by illness ; 
the last, indeed, had been obliged to remain behind, 



HIS EMBAKCATU:?? OM TBB JJflCES* 203 

md he died sooo afterward, without seeanz :l"e 
Niger. 

On the 22d, Park and Anderson embark 
the Niger, with ail the baggage, in two c 
leaving Lieutenant Martyn and the smriTini: . . r " 
to proceed by land, and join them at Marrabv 
yond the rapids. " We passed two oi the pr: 
rapids," says Park ~ and three smaller ones 
course of the afternoon. We saw on one :_ - - 
islands in the middle of the riTer a laige elephant : 
it was of a red clay colour, with black legs. T -^^ ? 
very unwell of the dysentery, otherwise I 
have had a shot at him, for he was 
We saw three hippo poiami close 
these islands. Hie canoe-men were : ey 

might follow ns and overset the canoe- 7 rt 

of a musket will in all cases firigh:r v. 

They blow up the water exactly : : As 

we were gliding along shore or_r f3 

speared a fine turtle, c^ 
I forme ny saw, and !r 
At sunset we tov^ 

some flat rocks, a^„ ;: :.,..: . . .. _ 
and rice for our supper ; but, before this 
repast was half dressed, the rain came > 

C43minued with great violence all night." 

From Marraboo Park despat<died his j > 

aco, to Sego, the capital of Bambarra^ : : 
with Eung Mansong for a free passage : 
dominions, and for such other facilities ai : ._ .. ... 
able him to prosecute his journey. On the Sih of 
September, Mansong's •* sinsfing man''' arrived, with 
orders to convey them to Sego, and on the lAh 
left them at Samee. to annoimee their approadi. 



204 park's speech to mansong's prime minister. 

Oa the evening of the 22d of September, Modi- 
binne, the prime minister of King Mansong, with 
four of his friends, arrived at Samee in a canoe, to 
hear from Park's own mouth the cause of his visit 
to Bambarra. On the following morning, as soon 
as our travellers had breakfasted, Modibinne and 
the four grandees came to visit them. When they 
had seated themselves, and the usual compHments 
had passed, Modibinne desired Park to acquaint 
them with the motives which had induced him to 
come into their country. Park then spoke to them 
in the Bambarra language as follows : 

•' I am the white man who, nine years ago, came 
into Bambarra. I then came to Sego, and request, 
ed Mansong's permission to pass to the eastward ; 
he not only permitted me to pass, but presented me 
with 5000 cowries, to purchase provisions on the 
road ; for you all know that the Moors had robbed 
me of my goods. This generous conduct of Man- 
song towards me has made his name much respect- 
ed in the land of the white people. The king of 
that country has sent me again into Bambarra ; and 
if Mansong is inclined to protect me, and you who 
are here sitting wish to befriend me, I will inform 
you of the real object of my coming into your 
country." [Here Modibinne desired him to speak 
on. as thev were all his friends.] " You all know," 
continued Park, " that the white people are a trading 
people ; and that all the articles of value, which the 
Moors and the people of Jinnie bring to Sego, are 
made bv us. If you speak of a good gun^ who 
made it ? the white people. If you speak of a good 
pistol or sword, or piece of scarlet, or baft, or beads, 
or gunpowder — who made them ? the white people 



THE minister's REPLY. 205 

We sell them to the Moors ; the Moors bring them 
to Timbuctoo, where they sell them at a higher rate. 
The people of Timbuctoo sell them to the people 
of Jinnie at a still higher price ; and the people of 
Jinnie sell them to you. Now the king of the white 
people wishes to find out a way by which we may 
bring our merchandise to you, and sell everything 
at a much cheaper rate than you now have them. 
For this purpose, if Mansong will permit me to 
pass, I propose sailing down the Joliba to the place 
where it mixes wdth the salt water ; and if I find 
no rocks or danger in the way, the white men's 
small vessels will come up and trade at Sego, if 
Mansong wishes it. What I have now spoken, I 
hope and trust you will not mention to any person 
except Mansong and his son ; for if the Moors 
should hear of it, I should certainly be murdered 
before 1 reach the salt water." 

Modibinne then answered, " We have heard what 
you have spoken. Your journey is a good one, and 
may God prosper you in it. Mansong will protect 
you. We will carry your words to Mansong this 
afternoon, and to-morrow will bring you his an- 
swer." Park made Isaaco show them the different 
presents which had been allotted to Mansong and 
bis son. They were delighted with a silver-plated 
tureen, two double-barrelled guns ; in fact, every 
article was far superior to anything of the kind 
they had ever before seen. 

When Park had laid out everything for Mansong 
and his son, he then made each of the grandees, 
and Modibinne, a present of scarlet cloth. Modi- 
binne said that the present was great, and worthy 
of Mansono- • " but," added he, " Mansong has 



206 mansong's reply to park. 

heard so many reports concerning your baggage 
that he wishes us to examine it. Such of the bun- 
dles as are covered with skin we will not open ; you 
will tell us what is in them, and that will be suffi- 
cient." Park told them that he had nothing but 
what was necessary for purchasing provisions ; and 
that it would please him much if they could dis- 
pense with opening the bundles. They, however, 
persisted ; and he then ordered the bundles to be 
brought out, taking care, with the assistance of the 
soldiers, to secrete all the good amber and coral. 

When all the loads were inspected, Park asked 
Modibinne what he thought of the baggage, and 
whether he had seen any more silver tureens or 
double-barrelled guns. Modibinne answered, that 
he had seen nothing that was bad, and nothing but 
what was necessary for purchasing provisions ; and 
that he would report the same to Mansong. He 
accordingly went away with his companions to 
Sego, but without taking Mansong's present till they 
had heard his answer. 

On the 24th of September two of the soldiers 
died. On the 25th, Modibinne and the four gran- 
dees returned with Mansong's answer, a literal 
translation of which is as follows : " Mansong says 
he will protect you ; that a road is open for you ev- 
erywhere, as far as his hand (power) extends. If 
you wish to go to the east, no man shall harm you 
from Sego till you pass Tombuctoo. If you wish 
to go to the west, you may travel through Foola- 
doo and Manding, through Kasson and Bondou ; 
the name of Mansong's stranger will be a sufficient 
protection for you. If you wish to build your 
boats at Samee or Sego, at Sansan4ing or Jinnie, 



THE TOWN OF SA^SANIylNGr. '^^J t 

name the towns, and Mansong will convey you 
thither." Modibinne concluded by observing, that 
Mansong wished Park to sell him four of the blun- 
derbusses, three swords, a fiddle (violin) which be- 
longed to Mr. Scott, and some Birmingham bead- 
necklaces, which pleased above everything ; that 
he had sent them a bullock, and his son another, 
with a sheep. Park replied, that Mansong's friend- 
ship was of more value to him than the articles 
which he had mentioned, and that he would be hap- 
py if Mansong would accept them from him as a 
further proof of his esteem. 

On the 26th the party departed from Samee, 
and proceeded down the river towards Sansanding. 
There was no wind, and the air was excessively 
sultry. " I never felt so hot a day," says Park ; 
" there was sensible heat sufficient to have roasted 
a sirloin ; but the thermometer was in a bundle in 
the other canoe, so that I could not ascertain the 
actual heat." On the 27th they reached Sansan- 
ding, which Park thus describes. 

" Sansanding contains 1 1 JQOO ^habitanta. It 
has no public buildinofs, except tne mosques, two 
of which, though built of mud, are by no~means in- 
elegant. The market-place is a large square, and 
the different articles of merchandise are exposed 
for sale on stalls covered with mats to shade them 
from the sun. The market is crowded with peo- 
ple from morning to night ; some of the stalls con- 
tain nothing but beads ; others indigo, in balls ; 
others wood-ashes, in balls ; others Houssa and Jin- 
nie cloth. I observed one stall with nothing but 
nntimony in small bits : another with sulphur ; and 
a third with copper and silver rings and bracelets. 



208 PARK *' OPENS SHOP." 

In the houses fronting the square is soJd scarlet, 
amber, silks from Morocco, and tobacco, which 
looks like Levant tobacco, and comes by way of 
Tombuctoo. Adjoining this is the salt-market, 
part of which occupies one corner of the square. 
A slab of salt is sold commonly for 8000 cowries. 
A large butcher's stall or shade is in the centre 
of the square, and as good and fat meat sold every 
day as any in England. The beer-market is at a 
little distance, under two large trees : there are 
often exposed for sale from eighty to one hundred 
calabashes of beer, each containing about two gal- 
lons. Near the beer-market is the place where 
red and yellow leather is sold. Besides these 
market-places, there is a very large space which 
is appropriated for the great market every Tues- 
day. On this day astonishing crowds of people 
come from the country to purchase articles in 
wholesale, and retail them in the different villa- 
ges." 

On the 8th of October, as Mansong had delayed 
sending the canoes he promised much longer than 
had been expected, Park thought it best to be pro- 
vided with a sufficient quantity of shells to purchase 
them ; particularly when he reflected that the riv- 
er would subside in the course of a few days, it hav- 
ing sunk that morning about four inches by the 
shore. "I therefore opened shop," he says, " in 
great style, and exhibited a choice assortment of 
European articles, to be sold in wholesale or re- 
tail. I had, of course, a great run, which, I suppose, 
drew on me the envy of my brother merchants ; 
for the Jinnie people, the Moors, and the mer- 
chants here, joined with those of the same descrip- 



HIS SUCCESSFUL TRADING. 209 

lion at Sego, and (in presence of Modibinne, from 
whose mouth I had it) offered to give Mansong a 
quantity of merchandise, of greater value than all 
the presents I had made him, if he would seize our 
baggage, and either kill us or send us back again 
out of Bambarra. They alleged that my object 
was to kill Mansong and his son by means of 
charms, that the white people might come and 
seize on the country. Mansong, much to his hon- 
our, rejected the proposal, though it was seconded 
by two thirds of the people of Sego, and almost all 
Sansanding. 

" From the 8th to the 16th nothing of conse- 
quence occurred ; I found my shop every day more 
and more crowded with customers ; and, such was 
my run of business, that T was sometimes forced to 
employ three tellers at once to count my cash. I 
turned one market-day 25,756 pieces of money 
(cowries)." 

On the 16th, a canoe was brought from Mansong ; 
but Park objected to one half of it as being quite 
rotten. Another half was then brought down from 
Sego, but would not match that already sent. On 
the 20th, Park succeeded in obtaining a very large 
canoe, one half of which was very much decayed 
and patched ; and he immediately set to work, with 
the assistance of one of the soldiers, to join the bet- 
ter half of it to that which he had formerly ob- 
tained. 

On the 28th of October, while engaged in this 
task. Park suffered a misfortune which he felt more 
keenly than any which he ha.d yet encountered. 
" At a quarter past five o'clock in the morning," 
he says, " my dear friend Mr. Alexander Ander- 



2i0 LAST LETTERS RECEIVED 

son, died after a sickness of four months. I feel 
much inclined to speak of his merits ; but as his 
worth was known only to a few friends, I will rath- 
er cherish his memory in silence, and imitate his 
cool and steady conduct, than weary my friends 
with a panegyric in which they cannot be supposed 
to join, I shall only observe, that no event which 
took place during the journey ever threw the 
smallest gloom over my mind till I laid Mr. An- 
derson in the grave. I then felt myself as if left 
a second time lonely and friendless amid the wilds 
of Africa." 

After eighteen days' hard labour. Park succeed- 
ed in changing the Bambarra canoe into His Ma- 
jesty^s schooner Joliba, having a length of forty feet, 
and a breadth of six feet. On the 16th of No- 
vember, at which day his Journal ends, he says 
that all was ready, and that he should sail on the 
morrow. On the 17th he wrote the following let- 
ter to Earl Camden, the colonial secretary, to 
whom he was about to transmit his Journal, to be 
conveyed by Isaaco as far as the Gambia. 

" On hoard of H. M. schooner Joliba^ ) 
At anchor off Sansanding, Nov. 17, 1805. ) 

"My Lord — I have herewith sent you an ac- 
count of each day's proceedings since we left 
Kayee. Many of the incidents related are in 
themselves extremely trifling ; but are intended to 
recall to my recollection (if it pleases God to re- 
store me again to my native land) other particu- 
lars illustrative of the manners and customs of the 
natives, which would have swelled this bulky com- 
munication to a most unreasonable size. 

" Your lordship will recollect that I always 



FROM PARK. 211 

spoke of the rainy season with horror, as being ex- 
tremely fatal to Europeans ; and our journey fron] 
the Gambia to the Niger will furnish a melancholy 
proof of it. 

" We had no contest whatever with the natives, 
nor was any one of us killed by wild animals, or 
any other accident ; and yet I am sorry to say, 
that of forty-four Europeans who left the Gambia 
in perfect health, five only are at present alive, 
namely, three soldiers (one deranged in his mind), 
Lieutenant Martyn, and myself. 

"From this account I am afraid that your lord- 
ship will be apt to consider matters in a very hope- 
less state ; but I assure you I am far from despond- 
ing. With the assistance of one of the soldiers I 
have changed a large canoe into a tolerably good 
schooner, on board of which I this day hoisted the 
British flag, and shall set sail to the east with the 
fixed resolution to discover the termination of the 
Niger or perish in the attempt. I have heard no- 
thing that I can depend on respecting the remote 
course of this mighty stream ; but I am more and 
more inclined to think that it can end nowhere but 
in the sea. 

" My dear friend Mr. Anderson, and likewise 
Mr. Scott, are both dead ; but, though all the Eu- 
ropearft who are with me should die, and though I 
myself were half dead, I would still persevere ; and 
if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, 
I would at last die on the Niger. 

"' If I succeed in the object of my journey, I ex- 
pect to be in England in the month of May or June, 
by way of the West Indies. 

"I request that your lordship will have the 
R 



212 LAST LETTERS RECEIVED 

goodness to permit my friend, Sir Joseph Banks, to 
peruse the abridged accounts of my proceedings, 
and that it may be preserved, in case I should lose 
my papers. I have the honour to be, &c. 

"MuNGO Park." 

Park remained at Sansanding to the 19th of No- 
vember, when, just before starting, he wrote the fol- 
lowing letter to his wife. 

" Sansanding^ \^th November , 1805. 

" It grieves me to the heart to write anything 
that may give you uneasiness, but such is the will 
of Him who doethall things well! Your brother 
Alexander, my dear friend, is no more ! He died 
of the fever at Sansanding, on the morning of the 
28th of October ; for particulars I must refer you 
to your father. 

" I am afraid that, impressed wdth a woman's 
fears and the anxieties of a wife, you may be led 
to consider my situation as a great deal worse than 
it really is. It is true, my dear friends Mr. An- 
derson and George Scott have both bid adieu to 
the things of this world ; and the greater part of 
the soldiers have died on the march during the rainy 
season ; but you may believe me I am in good 
health. The rains are completely over, £fnd the 
healthy season has commenced, so that there is no 
danger of sickness; and I have still a sufficient 
force to protect me from any insult in sailing down 
the river to the sea. 

" We have already embarked all our things, and 
shall sail the moment I have finished this letter. I 
do not intend to stop or land anywhere till we reach 



FROM PARK. 213 

the coast, which I suppose will be some time ia the 
end of January. We shall then embark in the 
first vessel for England. If we have to go round 
by the West Indies, the voyage will occupy three 
months longer : so that we expect to be in England 
on the first of May. The reason of our delay since 
we left the coast was the rainy season, which came 
on us during the journey, and almost all the soldiers 
became affected with the fever. 

" I think it not unlikely but I shall be in England 
before you receive this. You may be sure that I 
feel happy at turning my face towards home. We 
this morning have done with all intercourse with 
the natives ; and the sails are now hoisting for our 
departure for the coast.* 

" To Mrs. Park:' 

These two letters from Park, together with oth- 
ers to his father-in-law and Sir Joseph Banks, and 
his Journal up to the date already mentioned, were 
brought by his guide, Isaaco, from Sansanding to 
the Gimbia, and thence transmitted to England. 
They were the last communications received from 
Park. 

* It is impossible to read these letters without feeling the 
tnith of the remark made upon them by the editor of Park's 
Journal, that " they bear strong traces of that deliberate courage, 
without effort or ostentation, which distinguished his whole 
^onduct;" and that his letter to Lord Camden, in particular, 

* breathes a generous spirit of self-devotion highly expressive 

)f the character and feelings of the writer." 



214 EITMOIJES or PAKJC'S DEATH. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EoflKKirs of Park's Death. — Isaaco's Mission to inquire into their 
TrntiL— Account of Park's Fate obtained from ins Gnide. — Its 
Cfflofiimation by snbsequent Traveiiers. — Ciapperton's Ac- 
cooBl. — EiertiDQS by the Brothers Lander to procure Park-'a 
Papers. — Memorials of him obtained by them. 

[1905-1^0.] 

Foa some time after the date of the letters writ- 
ten by Park from Sansanding, nothing was heard 
of the expedition. In the course of the year 1806, 
vague reports were brought to the British settle- 
ments on the coast by the native traders from the 
interior of Africa, to the effect that Park and his 
companions had been killed. Years passed on and 
the rumours increased, though no distinct accounts 
upon the subject could be obtaiDed ; till at length 
Colonel Maxw-elL the governor of Senegal, obtain- 
ed permission from the British government to send 
a proper person to procure some n>ore precise in- 
formation. For thds service he was fortunately able 
to engage Isaaco, who had been Park's guide from 
the Gimbia, and who had brought back iiis letters 
and Journal from Sansanding. 

Isaaco left Senega] in January, 1810, and on the 
1st of September, 1611, returned thither, with a 
full confirmation of the reports concerning Park's 
death. At Fadina, near Sansanding, he met with 
Anmdi Fatouma, the very guide whom he had rec- 
ommended to Park to acconjpanj him on his voy- 
age from Sansanding down the Niger. " I sent for 
liim,'' says Isaaco, " be came unmediately. I de- 



ACCOUXT 0? park's DEATH Bi HIS GUTDE. 215 

manded of him a faitliful account of what had hap. 
pened to Mr. Park. On seeing me, and hearing 
me mention Mr. Park, he began to weep, and his 
tirst words were, 'They are all dead.'' I said, 'I 
am come to see after you, and intended to look 
every way for you, to know the truth from youj- 
own rhouth, how they died.' He said that they 
were lost for ever, and that it was useless to make 
any farther inquir}^ after them ; for to look after 
what was irrecoverably lost was losincr tinae to no 
purpose." 

According to the account of Amadi Fatouma, 
Park left Sansanding in the canoe with Lieutenant 
Martyn, three other white men, three slaves, and 
himself as guide and interpreter. He describes 
the voyage of the party down the river, past Jin- 
nie, through Lake Dibbie, and past Kabra, the 
port of Timbuctoo, into the kingdom of Haoussa. 
On entering this country Amadi Fatouma's en- 
gagement was at an end ; but, at Park's request, he 
remained two days longer with the party, and ac- 
companied them down the river as far as Yaour or 
Yaoorie. Throughout the voyage they were con- 
stantly exposed to the hostility of the natives. •• We 
lost one white man by sickness,'' says the guide; 
'* we were reduced to eight hands, having each of 
us fifteen muskets, always in order and ready for 
action." The natives repeatedly attacked them iu 
canoes, and were repeatedly repulsed with great 
loss of hfe. Referring to one encounter, the guide 
says, " Seeing so many men killed, and our superi- 
ority over them, I took hold oi^ Martyn's hand, say- 
ing, • Martyn, let us cease firing, for we have killed 



216 AccoursT OF park's death 

too many already ;' on which Martyn wanted to 
kill me, had not Mr. Park interfered." 

At Yaoorie, Amadi Fatouma was sent on shore 
with a musket and sabre for the chief, to whom 
also he took several presents for the king. The 
chief asked him if the white men intended to come 
back ; and Park being informed of this inquiry, re- 
plied that he could not return any more. It is 
supposed that this reply induced the chief to with- 
hold the presents from the king, and that the anger 
thereby excited in the king's mind against the 
white men led to the last and fatal attack upon 
them. The catastrophe is thus recorded by Ama- 
di Fatouma. 

" Next day (Saturday) Mr. Park departed, and 
I slept in the village (Yaour). Next morning I 
v/ent to the king to pay my respects to him ; on en- 
tering the house I found two men who came on horse- 
back ; they were bent by the chief of Yaour. They 
said to the king, * We are sent by the chief of Yaour 
to let you know that the white men went away with- 
out giving you or him (the chief) anything ; they 
have a great many things with them, and we have 
received nothing from them ; and this Amadi Fa- 
touma, now before you, is a bad man, and has like- 
wise made a fool of you both.' The king imme- 
diately ordered me to be put in irons, which was 
accordingly done, and everything T had taken from 
me ; some were for killing me, and some for pre- 
serving my life. The next morning, early, the king 
sent an army to a village called Boussa, near the 
river side. There is before this village a rock 
across the full breadth of the river. One part of 
the rock is very high ; there is a large opening in 



GIVEN BY HIS GUIDE. 217 

that r(5ck in the form of a door, which is the only 
passage for the water to pass through ; the tide- 
current is here very strong, The army went and 
took possession of this opening. Mr. Park came 
there after the army had posted itself; he never- 
theless attempted to pass. The people began to 
attack him, throwing lances, pikes, arrows, and 
stones. Mr. Park defended himself for a long 
time ; two of his slaves at the stern of the canoe 
were killed ; they threw everything they had in 
the canoe into the river, and kept firing ; but, being 
overpowered by numbers and fatigue, and unable 
to keep up the canoe against the current, and no 
probability of escaping, Mr. Park took hold of one of 
the white men and jumped into the water ; Martyn 
did the same, and they were drowned in the stream 
in attempting to escape. The only slave remain- 
ing in the boat seeing the natives throwing weapons 
at the canoe without ceasing, stood up, and said to 
them, *.Stop throwing now ; you see nothing in the 
canoe, and noboJ^t but myself, therefore cease. 
Take me and the canoe, but don't kill me.' They 
took possession of the canoe and the man, and car- 
ried them to the king. 

" I was kept in irons three months ; the king re- 
leased me and gave me a slave (woman). I imme- 
diately went to the slave taken in the canoe, who 
told me in what manner Mr. Park had died, and 
v/hat I have related above. I asked him if he was 
sure nothing had been found in the canoe after its 
capture ; he said that nothing remained in the ca- 
noe but himself and a sword-belt. I asked him 
where the sword-belt was ; he said the king took it, 
and made a girth for his horse with it." This 



218 INQUIRIES OF CLAPPERTON 

swora-bclt Isaaco al'terward procured, and brought 
with him to Seueo-al. 

o 

Such was tile account which, after the lapse of 
so many years, was conveyed to England con- 
cerning the termination of this expedition. Its 
credibility was impugned by many persons ; and 
even so late as 1815, when Park's Journal was first 
published, the publisher thought it necessary to com- 
bat the opinion entertained by some persons, that 
Park might still be alive in some remote part of the 
interior of Alrica. But of late years the account, 
in all its material features, has been amply con- 
firmed ; and the researches of our countrymen on 
the spot have satisfactorily established the fact, 
that Park sailed down the Niger from Sansanding 
to Boussa ; that he was there attacked by the na- 
tives ; and that, overpowered by numbers, he there 
perished in the Niger, so strangely verifying his 
own declaration in his last letter to Lord Camden, 
•* that if he could not succeed in the object of his 
journey, he would at last die oi#the Niger." 

In the year 1826, Captain Clapperton visited 
Boussa, and saw the rock described by Amadi Fa- 
touma as the place near which Park and his com- 
panions were killed. " We had all along, ' he 
says, " been buoyed up witli the hope of being able 
to obtain the Journal and papers of the late Mungo 
Park at Boussa ; but, to our great mortification 
and disappointment, we discovered that they had 
been either destroyed, or conveyed no one could 
tell whither, many years before. The inhabitants 
were exceedingly reserved on the subject of the 
fatal catastrophe, and usually gave equivocating or 
evasive answers to our inquiries as to the manner 



AT BOUSSA. 219 

in which it occurred. They seemed, indeed, over- 
vvhehxied with shame at tiie part they or their fa- 
thers had taken in the dreadful tragedy, and did 
all ni their power to shift the blame from the shoul- 
ders of themselves and their countrymen." 

The same traveller succeeded in obtaining, du- 
ring his stay in that part of the country, some par- 
ticulars of the death of Park and the other mem- 
bers of the expedition ; the following is given by 
him as the most accurate and best authenticated 
version which he could procure of the " dismal sto- 
ry," as he styles it. 

" The voyagers had reached Youri in safety, and 
were on intimate and familiar terms with the sul- 
tan, father to the reigning prince, who entreated 
them to finish their journey through the country by 
land, instead of proceeding down the Quorra to the 
salt water ; observing that the people inhabiting 
the islands and borders of the river were ferocious 
in their manners, and would not suffer their canoe 
to proceed without first having rifled it of its con- 
tents, and exposed them to every species of indig- 
nity and insult ; and that, if their lives were spared, 
they would infallibly be detained as domestic slaves. 
This evil report was considered as the eflfect of 
jealousy and prejudice ; and, disregarding the pru- 
dent counsel of the sultan of Youri, the ill-fated 
adventurers proceeded down the Quorra as far as 
the island of Boussa, from whence their strange- 
looking canoe was observed by one or two of the 
inhabitants, whose shouts brought numbers of their 
companions, armed with bows and arrows, to the 
spot. At that time the usurpations of the Falatahs 
had begun to be the general talk of the black pop- 



220 ACCOUNT OF PARK S DEATH 

ulation of the country, that the people of Boussa, 
who had only heard of that warlike nation, fancied 
Mr. Park and his associates to be some of them, 
coming with the intention of taking their town and 
subjugating its inhabitants. Under this impres- 
sion, they saluted the unfortunate Englishmen from 
the beach with showers of missiles and poisoned 
ajTows, which were returned by the latter with a 
discharge of musketry. A small white flag had 
been previously waved by our countrymen in to- 
ken of their peaceable intentions ; but this symbol 
not being understood by the people of Boussa, they 
continued firing arrows till they were joined by 
the whole male population of the island, when the 
unequal contest was renewed with greater violence 
than ever. In the mean time the Englishmen, with 
the blacks they had with them, kept firing unceas- 
ingly among the multitude on shore, killing many, 
and wounding a still greater number ; till, their 
ammunition being expended, and seeing every hope 
of life cut off, they threw their goods overboard, 
and desiring their sable assistants to swim towards 
the beach, locked themselves firmly in each others' 
arms, and, springing into the water, instantly sank, 
and were never seen again. 

" The bodies of the two slaves who attempted to 
save their lives by swimming were pierced with a 
grove of arrows, but they subsequently recovered 
from the effects of their wounds, and were certain- 
ly alive when we were at Boussa ; but, as I under- 
stood afterward, they were carefully concealed, in 
order to prevent our making any inquiries of them 
relative to the affair. 

'* Resistance being thus at an end, the floating 



GIVEN TO CLAFPERTON. 221 

property had been eagerly laid hold of by the peo- 
pie of Boussa, and carried in triumph to their city. 
In the evening they formed a circle round it, and 
for several days and nights nothing was to be seen 
or heard but feasting and rejoicing ; but it happen- 
ed, before their revelries were well over, an infec- 
tious disease, whereof they had not previously had 
the most distant idea, raged in the island, and swept 
off the sultan, wath numbers of his subjects ; and it 
was remarked that those who had been most ac- 
tive in the destruction of the strangers were cut 
off to a man, expiring in great agony. The peo- 
ple endeavoured to appease the wrath of the white 
man's God (by whose instrumentality they were 
firmly persuaded the destroying plague had reach- 
ed them) by the offering of sacrifices, and after- 
ward by setting fire to all the articles found on the 
surface of the water ; shortly after which, it is as- 
serted, the pestilence left the island. Meantime 
the news of the occurrence and its fatal results 
spread like wildfire through the neighbouring states, 
and the people of Boussa were stigmatized with a 
reproachful epithet for having been guilty of so 
heinous a crime. Hence the studied reserve of 
the reigning sultan and his subjects, which no con- 
siderations could tempt them to break through, so 
as to enter into the details of the tragedy ; and 
hence, also, the expression, so beneficial to us in 
those regions, and so prevalent among all ranks 
and conditions : *Do not hurt the w^hite men ; for if 
you do, you will perish like the people of Boussa.' " 
While at Saccatoo he had some conversation 
with Sultan Bello, the chief or king of the country, 
upon the subject. 



222 CLAPPERTON's RESE-lRCEEb. 

** We then spoke," says Ciappenon, •• of Mungo 
Park, and said v.viu had he come in the ramy sea- 
son, be would have passed the rocks ; but that the 
liver fell so low in the dry season, boats could only 



pass at a 


certain p: 


i:;:. Hr :: : ine that some 


timbers of the boat. 


t^ - d :_: ner with nails. 


remaioed 


alon£r ti 


s : and that a 


double-barrelled gu 


/: 'V-f ': :''-r.. w:i5 once in 


his possession, but i 


:-.-:;:.:. H- c:-;-n. 


A'- ' ' 


nan, hov\ 


~ .-\ 


t:' 


?f the bo: 


_: ■ - ._. - -- .— „,^ _: _ vn 






1 other books were in the 

Y iri. who was tributary 
could procure these 




- 


E : *'"y would prove 
iiisedto make 


c"- 




tained'by the 



same traveller : 

" Hence be it known, that some Christian came 

to the town of Youri, in the kingdom of Yaoor, 

and landed and purchased provisions, as onions 

and other things ; and they sent a present to the 

King of Yaoor. The said king desired them to 

ait until he should send them a messenger : but 

_\^Y were frightened, and went away by the sea 

i: They arrived at the town Bousa, or 

B d their ship then rubbed (struck) upon a 

ro A, and all of them perished in the river. This 

fact is within ouf- knowledge, and peace be to the 

end. 

'^ It is genuine from Mohammed ben Dehmann." 

(In ad iition to the above, there is a kind of post- 



INSTRUCTION'S TO THE LANDERS. 223 

script appended to the document by a different 
hand, which, being both ungrammatical and scarce- 
iy legible, there was some difficuhy in translating, 
and giving a proper meaning to. The words, how- 
ever, are thought to be as follow, though most of 
them have been made out by conjecture.) 

" And they agreed, or arranged among them- 
selves, and swam in the sea (river), while the men 
who were with (pursuing) them appeared on the 
coast of the sea (bank of the river), and fell upon 
them and went down (sunk) in it." 

In the year 1830, when the brothers Lander 
went out to Africa for the purpose of following the 
course of the Niger below^ Boossa to the sea, hopes 
were still entertained that they might be able to re- 
cover some of Park's papers ; possibly the contin- 
uation of his Journal from Sansanding, whence the 
previous portion of it, recording his journey to that 
place, had been despatched, together with the last 
letters that were received from him or his associ- 
ates. These hopes rested principally on the state- 
ment made by the Sultan of Yaoorie in his letter to 
' Captain Clapperton, to the effect that he had in his 
possession certain books and papers which had be- 
longed to Park ; and to procure these memorials of 
the unfortunate traveller was one of the secondary 
objects of the expedition. " Should you be of opin- 
ion," say the instructions of the colonial secretary, 
Sir George Murray, to Richard Lander, " that the 
sultan of Yaoorie can safely be communicated with, 
you are at liberty to send your brother with a pres- 
ent to that chief, to ask, in the king's name, for cer- 
tain books or papers which he is supposed to have, 
that belonored to the late Mr. Park." 



224 RECOVERY OF A TOBE 

The Landers reached Boossa on the 17th of 
June, a.nd on the following day heheld the scene of 
Park's disastrous fate. " We visited," they say in 
their Journal, "the far-famed Niger, or Quorra, 
which flows by the city, about a mile from our res- 
idence, and were greatly disappointed at the appear- 
ance of this celebrated river. Black rugged rocks 
rose abruptly from the centre of the stream, causing 
strong ripples and eddies on its surface. It is said 
that, a few miles above Boossa, the river is divided 
into three branches by two small fertile islands, and 
that it flows from hence in one continued stream to 
Funda. The Niger here, in its widest part, is not 
more than a stone's throw across at present. The 
rock on which we sat overlooks the spot where Mr. 
Park and his associates met their unhappy fate ; we 
could not help meditating on that circumstance, and 
on the number of valuable lives which had been 
sacrificed in attempting to explore this river, and 
secretly implored the Almighty that we might be 
the humble means of setting at rest for ever the 
great question of its course and termination."* 

On the following day, being June the 19th, the- 
King of Boossa, accompanied by his consort, re- 
paired to the hut of the travellers. " Our visiters," 
says their Journal, " remained with us a considera- 
ble time, and in the course of conversation one of 
them observed that they had in their possession a 
tobe which belonged to a white man who came 
from the north many years ago, and from whom it 
had been purchased by the king's father. We ex- 
pressed great curiosity to see this tobe, and it was 

* See Landers' Expedition to the Niger. Harpers' Family 
Library, Nos. xxxv. and xxxvi 



BELONGING TO PARK. 225 

sent us as a present a short time after their depart- 
ure. Contrary to our expectation, we found it to 
be made of rich crimson damask, and very heavy 
from the immense quantity of gold embroidery with 
which it was covered. As the time when the late 
king is said to have purchased this tobe corresponds 
very nearly to the supposed period of Mr. Park's 
death, and as we never heard of any other white 
man having come from the north so far south as 
Boossa, we are inclined to believe it to be part of 
the spoil obtained from the canoe of that ill-fated 
traveller. Whether Mr. Park wore the tobe him- 
self, which is scarcely probable on account of its 
weight, or whether he intended it as a present to 
a native chief, we are at a loss to determine. At 
all events, the article is a curiosity in itself; and 
if we should live to return to England, we shall 
easily learn whether it was made there or not.* 
The chief himself has never worn the tobe, nor his 
predecessor, from a superstitious feeling ; ' besides,' 
observed the king, ' it might excite the cupidity of 
the neighbouring powers.' " 

On the following day the brothers endeavoured 
to obtain some farther information on the subject. 

" Sunday, June 20th, — The king sent a messen- 
ger this morning to inform us that he was a tai- 
lor, and that he would thank us for some thread 
and a few needles for his own private use. By 

* The travellers happily lived to return to England, but they 
did not bring the tobe with them, being obliged, as they descend- 
ed the Niger, to send it as a present to the King of Rabba, in 
order to propitiate that monarch, and induce him to allow them 
to proceed on their way. " Of course," they say, " we deeply 
lamented the necessity to which we were reduced on parting 
with this curiosity, but it was inevitable." 



226 DISCOVERY OF 

this man he Ukewise sent a musket for us to repair , 
but. as it is Sunday, we have decUned doins it till 
to-morrow. Eager as we are to obtain even the 
shghtest information relative to the unhappy fate 
of Mr. Park and his companions, as well as to as- 
certain if any of their books or papers are now in 
existence at this place, we had almost made up our 
rninds to refrain from asking any questions on the 
subject, because we were apprehensive that it might 
be displeasing to the king, and involve us in many 
perplexities. Familiarity, however, ha\ing in some 
measure worn off this impression, and the king 
being an affable, obhging, and good-natured person, 
we were imboldened to send Paskoe to him this 
morning with a message expressive of the interest 
we felt on the subject, in common with all our coun- 
trymen ; and saying that, if any books or papers 
which belonged to !Mr. Park were yet in his pos- 
session, he w^ould do us great service by delivering 
them into our hands, or, at least, by granting us per- 
mission to see them. To this the king returned for 
answer, that, when Mr. Park was lost in the Niger, 
he was a very little boy, and that he knew not what 
had become of his effects ; that the deplorable 
event had occurred in the reign of the late king's 
predecessor, who died shortly after, and that all 
traces of the w4iite man's effects had been lost with 
him. This answer disappointed our hopes, for to 
us it appeared final and decisive. But in the even- 
ing they w^ere again raised by a hint from our host, 
who is the king's drummer, and one of the princi. 
pal men in the country. He assured us that there 
was at least one book saved from Mr. Park's canoe, 
which is now in the possession of a very poor man 



02iE OF PAEK S £00 ES. 227 

in the service of his master, to whom it had been 
intrusted by the late king during his last illness. 
He said, moreover, that if but one application were 
made to the king on any subject whatever, very 
little was thought of it ; but if a second were made, 
the matter would be considered of sufficient impor- 
tance to demand his whole attention, such being the 
custom of the country. The drummer, therefore, 
recommended us to persevere in our inquiries, for 
he had no doubt that something to our satisfaction 
would be elicited. At his own request, we sent 
him to the king immediately, desiring him to repeat 
our former statement, and to assure the king that, 
should he be successful in recovering the book we 
wanted, our monarch would reward him handsome. 
ly. He desired the drummer to inform us that he 
would use every exertion, and examine the man who 
was reported to have the white man's book in his 
possession at an early hour to-morrow. Here the 
matter at present rests." 

The king kept his promise. On the afternoon 
of the following day the king went to see the trav- 
ellers ; he was followed by a man who had under 
his arm a book which was said to have been picked 
up in the Niger after the loss of Park. *• It was 
enveloped," they say, "in a large cotton cloth, and 
our hearts beat high with expectation as the man 
was slowly unfolding it, for by its size we guessed 
it to be Mr. Park's Journal ; but our disappointment 
and chagrin were great, when, on opening the book, 
we discovered it to be an old nautical publication 
of the last century. The title-page was missing ; 
but its contents were chiefly tables of logarithms. 
It was a thick royal quarto, which led us to conjee- 



228 DISAPPOINTMENT. 

ture that it was a jourpal ; between the leaves we 
found a few loose papers, of very little consequence 
indeed ; one of them contained two or three obser- 
vations on the height of the water in the Gambia, 
one was a tailor's bill on Mr. Anderson, and anoth- 
er was addressed to Mr. Mungo Park, and contained 
an invitation to dinner. The following is a copy 
of it. 

" ' Mr. and Mrs. Watson would be happy to have 
the pleasure of Mr. Park's company to dinner on 
Tuesday next, at half past five o'clock. An an- 
swer is requested. 

" ' Strand, 9th November, 1804.' 

•* The king, as well as the owner of the book, 
ooked as greatly mortified as ourselves when they 
were told the one produced was not that of which 
we were in quest, because the reward promised 
would not, of course, be obtained. As soon as 
our curiosity had been fully satisfied, the papers 
were carefully collected and placed again between 
the leaves, and the book as carefully folded in its 
envelope as before, and taken away by its owner, 
who values it as much as a household god. Thus 
all our hopes of obtaining Mr. Park's Journal or 
papers in this city are entirely defeated. The in- 
quiry, on our part, has not been prosecuted with- 
out much trouble and anxiety, and some little per- 
sonal sacrifices likewise, which, had they been ten 
times as great, we would gladly have made, while 
a single hope remained of their being effectual." 

At Yaoorie, where the chances of success were 
thought to be greater, on account of the sultan's 
affirmation in his letter to Captain Clapperton, the 



INQUIRIES OF THE LANDERS AT YAOORIE. 229 

attempt was renewed ; but, though in the end it 
proved fruitless, the travellers gathered some inter- 
esting information concerning Park. They reach- 
ed Yaoorie on Sunday, the 27th of June, and their 
proceedings on the following day are thus related 
in their Journal. 

" Monday, June 28ih, — This morning we were 
visited by the chief of the Arabs of this city, who 
(if such a title can be used with propriety) is prime- 
minister to the sultan. He is a very old man, as 
darira:s a native, and was dressed in the costume 
of his countrymen, which is very becoming. His 
beard was long and as white as snow, and a singu- 
lar tuft of hair, which was directly under the lower 
lip, did not look much unlike the tail of a white 
mouse. Though toothless, the old man was yet 
very communicative and intelligent ; and, among 
other things, he informed us that Mr. Park did not 
visit the city of Yaoorie, but remained in his canoe 
at the yillage where we landed yesterday, and de- 
spatched a messenger in his stead to the sultan, with 
a suitable present. This Arab had been sent by 
the sultan to the village with presents in return, and, 
by his description of Mr. Park's dress, he must have 
worn the laced tobe that we received of the King 
of Boossa, and which may account for the facility 
with which we obtained it, as well as the reluctance 
of the king to enter into an explanation of the man- 
ner in which his ancestor got possession of it. Mr. 
Park is stated to have been drowned in the same 
dress. The A^-ab informed us that he had in his 
possession a cutlass and a double-barrelled gun, 
which was part of Mr. Park's present to the sultan. 
We expressed a wish to look at these weapons, and 



230 HOPE RENEWED. 

they were immediately sent for. The gun was 
very excellent, and handsomely mounted ; and we 
offered our own fowling-piece in exchange for it, 
which was cheerfully agreed to, but not till after 
the sultan's consent had in the tirst place been ob- 
tained." 

On the afternoon of the following day, the trav- 
ellers went to pay their respects to the sultan. 
*' The conversation," they say, " commenced in the 
usual complimentary way ; and then our object in 
visiting Yaoorie was briefly and indirectly hinted 
at. When we asked him whether he did not send 
a letter to the late Captain Clapperton. while that 
officer was at Koolfu, in which he affirmed that he 
had certain books and papers in his possession 
which belonged to Mr. Park, he appeared very 
much confused. After thinking >and hesitating a 
good while, he answered with an affected laugh, 
* How could you think that I could have the books 
of a person who was lost at Boossa V and this was 
all that he said on the^ubject." 

On Sunday, July the 4th. Richard Lander visited 
the sultan to make a last application for Park's pa- 
pers. ** He would give no decisive answer, but in 
the course of the day he said he would tell the chief 
of the Arabs everything relative to them, and would 
send him to us with the information. Accordingly, 
in the atternoon, the old man came as commanded ; 
but, instead of deUvering the expected communica- 
tion, he said that we should certainly inspect the 
books to-morrow ; and, in the mean time, the sultan 
would thank us to sell him some gunpowder, and 
whatever red cloth we might have lefL This re- 
finement in bes^orin^r. or. in other words, this mean 



FINAL DISAPPOINTMENT. 231 

rapaciousness on the part of the sultan, was never 
more apparent than in this instance." 

The rain preventing a communication with the 
sultan on the following day, the promised inspection 
was not afforded. On the morrow, however, the 
indefatigable travellers sent their attendant Paskoe 
with a message to the sultan, stating that they ear- 
nestly wished to receive a final and decisive answer 
with regard to the restoration of Mr. Park's papers, 
to obtain which they declared to have been their 
sole object in visiting him, adding, that it was their 
desire to quit Yaoorie immediately. " This bold 
and, to us, unusual language, seemed to have sur- 
prised and startled the sultan, and he instantly de- 
spatched the old Arab to inform us, that he decla- 
red to God, in the most solemn manner, that he had 
never had in his possession, nor seen any books or 
papers of the white travellers that perished at Boos- 
sa. The Arab likewise assured us that we were 
at liberty to proceed on our journey whenever we 
should think proper. Thus, notwithstanding all 
the false hopes that the sultan artfully held out to 
us, that Mr. Park's papers were actually in his pos- 
session ; the letter to Captain Clapperton, which ex- 
pressly stated this to be the case ; and the pitiful 
shuffling which he had displayed to keep us so long 
in suspense with respect to any true information, it 
appears then, without doubt, that he has not, and 
never has had, a single book or paper in the Eng- 
lish language. His only mofive for the dastardly 
conduct he had displayed could have been neither 
more nor less than the hope of getting us into his 
power by misrepresentation and falsehood, in or- 
der to obtain some of the European artichis which 



232 PROCEEDINGS AT WOWOW. 

we had in our possession. That the suUan has suc- 
ceeded so well with us has not been our fault en- 
tirely, but even now he is by no means satisfied, nor 
is it likely that he will be while we remain with him. 
It is a satisfaction, at least, for us to know that the 
long-sought papers are at present nowhere in ex- 
istence." 

At a subsequent period, the hope of recovering 
them was again aroused. The travellers returned 
from Yaoorie to Boossa, and then visited the city 
of Wowow ; Richard Lander, however, being taken 
ill after a few days' stay, went back to Boossa, 
where the medicine-chest had been left. His 
brother John remained at Wowow a short time 
longer ; and in the journal which he kept during 
that period, he writes thus : 

''Wednesday, August ISth, — My curiosity has 
again been highly, and, perhaps, painfully excited, 
by hearing to-day that a certain man in the town 
was known to have had in his possession several 
books which he had picked up from the Niger at 
the period of Mr. Park's dissolution. As soon as 
I had learned this, I instantly sent to the man's 
house to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the 
rumour ; but he happened to be from home, and it 
was not till night, after his return from the bush, 
that I heard, with disappointment and sorrow, that 
the report was indeed well founded, but that the 
books had all been recently destroyed. The man 
said he had shown th^m to the Arabs who were in 
the habit of visiting the town, but they could not 
understand the language in which they were writ- 
ten, and merely conjectured that their contents re- 
lated to money matters, and were therefore of no 



RECOVERY OF A PILLOW. 233 

kind of use to any one. Yet, nothwithstanding 
their uselessness, the man is reported to have kept 
the books carefully concealed in his house till the 
arrival of Captain Clapperton at Wo wow ; but when 
he found that this officer made no inquiries for such 
books, he neglected to pay any farther attention to 
them, and they were destroyed shortly after, or, to 
use his own words, 'they dropped or fell to pieces.' 
By the description which has been given of one of 
the books alluded to, I am inclined to believe that 
it must have been either Mr. Park's Journal, or a 
book of manuscripts of some sort. Thus have all 
our inquiries for the recovery of the lost papers of 
this traveller ended in disappointment, even when 
we had made almost sure of them, and our feelings 
excited to their highest pitch on more than one oc- 
casion, we have felt all the bitterness of hope sud- 
denly extinguished." 

Mr. John Lander afterward succeeded in pro- 
curing a stuffed pillow, which had probably been 
used by Mr. Park for a seat, and within which 
was enclosed a small Arabic manuscript, supposed 
to be a native charm,' The recovery of it is thus 
related in the journal. 

" Friday, August 20th. — The widow Zuma has 
left a son at Wowow, who is about thirty years of 
age, and is suffered to reside here only because he 
is at variance with his captious mother, and disap. 
proves and condemns all her measures. This 
young man has been a constant daily visiter to 
me, and brings me occasionally a dish of pounded 
yam and palm oil, a few goora-nuts, or some such 
trifle. At our request he has busied himself sur- 
prisingly in endeavouring to procure information 



234 RECOVERY OF A PILLOW 

respecting the papers of Mr. Park. Though near- 
ly blind, Abba (for that is his name) is a hand- 
some and inteUigent young man, of an equable 
temper, and of a mild, modest, and amiable dispo- 
sition, which has rendered him a great favourite 
with us. From the information with which he has 
supplied us, we learn that the late King of Wowow, 
who was father to the present ruler, became pos- 
sessed of much of Mr. Park's property, among 
which was a great quantity of guns and ammuni- 
tion, particularly musket-balls, which we have seen. 
Before this monarch's dissolution, he left them to 
be divided among his sons. Abba ascertained yes- 
terday that a large fat woman belonging to the 
king had a great pillow, which her deceased hus- 
band had snatched, among other things, from the 
Niger, near Boossa, and with which he had fled to 
Wowow, where he continued to reside till his 
death. This pillow, as it is called, had perhaps 
been used for a seat, for it was covered with bul- 
lock's hide, and strengthened by ribs of iron ; but 
the coverino; havincj been worn into holes with as^e 
and use, it was yesterday pulled to pieces by the 
owner, who found it to be stuffed with rags and 
cloth, cut into small bits. In the centre of the pil- 
low, however, to the woman's surprise, she discov- 
ered a little bag of striped satin, and feeling some- 
thing like a book, as she says, within it, she- was 
afraid to open it herself, but presently sent word 
to Abba of the circumstance, who forthwith came 
and imparted it to me, bringing the little bag along 
with him. On opening it, I found a little iron 
frame, round which had been wound, with much / 
ingenuity and care, a great quantity of cotton J 

/ 



AND A NATIVE CHARM. 235 

thread, which encompassed it, perhaps, not less than 
ten thousand times ; and, in consequence of its en- 
tangled state, it was provokingly troublesome to 
take off. Affixed to the little iron instrument, 
which is said to be a child's handcuff of foreign 
manufacture, and underneath the cotton, was an 
old manuscript, which, according to Abba's opin- 
ion, is a native charm. But as I mistrusted his 
knowledge of the Arabic language, and doubted 
his ability to give a proper interpretation to the 
contents of the paper, in my own judgment I was 
induced to believe it to be neither more nor less 
than a charm of some kind. Therefore I purcha- 
sed the manuscript, because it might be of greater 
consequence than I imagined, and because the bag 
in which it had been enveloped was of European 
satin, and the ink with which it had been written 
very different from that which is used by the Arabs, 
resembhng our own so closely that the difference 
in the colour of both cannot be distinguished. We 
were advised by no means to intimate to the king 
the nature of Abba's inquiries, for the people are 
afraid of him, and declare that if he knew of any 
individual that had secreted ever so trifling a part 
of Mr. Park's property, he would be beheaded with- 
out mercy." 

Such were the results of the Landers' exertions 
to recover the papers of Park. At a subsequent 
period of the journey, during a visit paid to the King 
of Wo wow, Richard Lander discovered, among that 
monarch's collection of charms, a small edition of 
Watt's Hymns, on one of the blank covers of which 
was written, " Alexander Anderson^ Royal Artillery 
Hospital, Gosport, 1804." He also mentions that 



236 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

he saw a note from Lady Dalkeith to Park, of the 
same date as that from Mr. and Mrs. Watson, and 
acknowledging the receipt of some drawings from 
him. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Historical Sketch of later Discoveries.— Four Hypotheses con- 
cerning the Termination of the Niger. — Hypothesis of its 
Identity with the Congo. — Park's Reasons in support thereof. 
— Reichard's Hypothesis of its Termination in the Gulf of 
Guinea. — Tuckey's Expedition to the Congo. — Clapperton's 
two Journeys.— Expedition of the Brothers Lander. — Their 
Success. 

[1805-1830.] 

An account of the life of Mungo Park may be 
appropriately concluded by a brief sketch of the 
subsequent history of the question concerning the 
termination of the Niger, and a statement of the 
successive steps by which its solution was effected 
five-and-twenty years after his death. His first 
expedition made us acquainted with the course of 
the Niger from Bammakoo to Silla, a distance of 
about 350 miles, throughout the whole of which 
the river was found to flow, roughly speaking, 
from west to east. The grand object of his sec- 
ond expedition was to trace the rest of its course 
from Silla, and to ascertain where this large river 
ended ; an achievement, of which it was said by 
Park himself, that, " considered in a commercial 
doint of view, it was second only to the discovery 



HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE NIGER. 237 

of the Cape of Good Hope, and in a geographical 
point of view, it was certainly the greatest discov- 
ery that remained to be made in this world," 

The failure of Park's second expedition left us 
still in ignorance concerning the course of the Ni- 
ger below Silla ; and for several years no farther 
attempt to dispel that ignorance was made. In the 
mean while, the subject, exciting much attention, 
was freely discussed ; and the information con- 
cerning it being vague and scanty, the conjectures 
were bold and numerous in proportion. The ques- 
tion which Park had failed to settle was looked 
upon as one of the grand geographical problem.s 
of the age ; and men reasoned and speculated about 
the termination of the Niger, just as they reasoned 
and speculated about a northwest passage from the 
Atlantic into the Pacific. The different hypothe- 
ses which prevailed about thirty years ago were 
four in number. Three of them existed, and were 
stoutly maintained by their respective supporters, 
during Park's lifetime ; the fourth was started 
three years after his death, and, singularly enough, 
has proved to be the correct one. The four hy- 
potheses are the following : 

1. That the Niger, after leaving Silla, continued 
to flow towards the east, across the heart of Af- 
rica, until it joined the Nile ; or, in other words, 
that the Niger was identical with that great west- 
ern branch of the Niger called the Balir-el-Ahiad^ 
or White River, of which the sources then were, 
as indeed they still are, undiscovered. 

2. That the Niger, after leaving Silla, continued 
to flow towards the east until, somewhere in the 
interior of Africa, it emptied itself into lakes, dis- 



233 HYPOTHESES CONCEKNING THE 

charging its surplus waters, in the rainy season, 
over a wide extent of level country. 

3. That the Niger, after continuing its easterly 
course for some distance beyond SiJla, turned to- 
wards the south, and, flowing many hundred miles 
in that direction, at last issued into the Atlantic 
Ocean, in about 6° south latitude, through that 
great outlet of fresh water called the river Congo 
or Zaire. 

4. That the Niger, after continuing its easterly 
course for some distance beyond Silla, turned to- 
wards the south, and entered the Atlantic Ocean in 
about 4*^ north latitude, at the head of the Gulf of 
Guinea, through the numerous little channels which 
were known to intersect that part of the African 
coast, and which were supposed to form an enor- 
mous delta or alluvial tract, bounded on the east 
by the river called the Rio del Rey, and on the 
west by the Rio Forinoso, or Benin River.* 

The first of these hypotheses, or that identifying 
the Niger with the western branch of the Nile, was 
maintained by Horneman, Mr. Grey Jackson, and 
other travellers ; but, even as early as 1815, it was 
justly pronounced by the editor of Park's Journal 
to be, of all the hypotheses, " the most unfounded, 
and the least consistent with acknowledged facts." 
It was, indeed, rather a loose popular conjecture 
than an opinion deduced from probable reasoning; 
nothing being alleged in its support except the bare 
fact that the course of the river, so far as known, 
was in a direction towards the Nile ; and a few 
vague notions of some of the African natives,']' 

* See map of the course of the Qiiorra, vol. i., Landers' Ex- 
pedition to the Niger, No. xxxv. Harpers' Family Library, 
i The facilitv of establishini almost any position in African 



TERMINATION OF THE NIGZR. 239 

unworthy of the smallest attention. But, besides 
wanting evidence in its favour, this hypothesis was 
hable to a strong objection, arising out of this con- 
sideration, that the Niger, after flowing across the 
vast space which separated it from the Nile, must 
have descended to a level, much lower than the 
known level of the Nile, at the only point at which 
the junction could take place ; in other words, the 
hypothesis involved the absurdity of supposing the 
Niger to flow up-hill. 

The second hypothesis, or that of an inland ter- 
mination of the Niger, boasted the support of two 
of the most eminent among modern geographers, 
D'Anvijle and Major Rennell.* The grounds on 
which it rested were, first, a sort of general opin- 
ion to the same effect among the ancients ; and, 
secondly, the physical character assigned, upon the 
strength of various accounts, to a part of Africa 
towards which the Niger flowed, and which was 
represented to be a tract of low alluvial country, 
having several permanent lakes, and being annually 
overflowed for three months during the rainy sea- 
geography upon the testimony of the natives, is strikingly illus 
trated by the reasoning advanced in favour of this hypothesis. 
Mr. Grey Jackson, who resided many years in Morocco, stated 
'it to be a fact universally known among the rich African traders, 
that the Niger and the Nile were one and the same river, by 
means of which there existed a practicable water communication 
between Timbiictoo and Grand Cairo; and, moreover, he actu- 
ally gave, on the authority of" a very intelligent man who had 
an establishment ai Timbuctoo," the particulars of a voyage said 
to have been performed in the year 1780, by a party of seventeen 
negroes, down the Niger to Cairo. Yet in no part of its course 
does the Niger approach within 1800 miles of Cairo. 

* '• On the whole," was Major Rennell's conclusion, •' it can 
scarcely be doubted that the Joliba, or Niger, terminates in 
lakes in the eastern quarter of Africa." 



2M0 task's hypothesis of the 

SOD. The principal ol^ectioii to it was the diffi. 
cultj of »ippodiig that so large a stream could be 
discharged into lak^s and eTaporated, even under 
an AMcan sun. 

The third hvpothesk. or that identiiying the Ni. 
ger with the CcMigo or Zaire, was a<k>pted hj Park 
in consequence of the information and suggesticHis 
of Mr. MaxwelU «tn experi^oced African trader. 
The princapal aigum^its in support <^ it are short, 
hr and clearly giren in the Memoir addressed bv 
Park to the coloniaJ secretary. Earl Camden, in 
October, 1804. 

•* The following considerations," says the trar- 
eDer, ** have induced Mr. Park toT think that the 
Congo will be found to be the termination oi the 
Niger: 

1. ** The total ignorance of all the inhabitants of 
Nonh Africa respecting the terminaXion ai that 
river. If the Niger ended anywhere in North Af- 
rica, it is difficult to conceive how the inhabitants 
should be so totally ignorant of it ; and why they 
should so geo^^dly describe it as running to the 
Nile, to the end of the world, and, in fact, to a 
country with which they are imacquainted. 

2. ** In Mr. Homeman's Journal, the Niger is 
described as fbwing ea^ward into Bomou, where 
it takes the name of Zad, The breadth of the 2Ia j 
was given him for one mile, and he was told that 
it flowed towards the Egyptian Nile, through the 
land of the Heathens. 'Th^ course here given is 
directly towards the Congo. Zad is the nanae of 
the Congo at its mouth, and it is the name of the 
Con^ for at least 650 miles inland. 

8. ^ The river oi Bar Kmlla, mentioned hv Mr 



IDENTITY OF THE NIGER AND CONGO. 241 

Browne, is generally supposed to be the Niger, or,. 
at least, to have a communication with that river. 
Now this is exactly the course the Niger ought to 
take in order to join the Congo. 

4. " The quantity of water discharged into the 
Atlantic by the Congo cannot be accounted for on 
any other known principle but that it is the ter- 
mination of the Niger. If the Congo derived its 
waters entirely from the south side of the mount- 
ains, which are supposed to form the Belt of Afri- 
ca, one would naturally suppose that, when the 
rains were confined to the north side of the mount- 
ains, the Congo, hke the other rivers of Africa, 
would be greatly diminished in size, and that its 
waters would become pure. On the contrary, the 
waters of the Congo are at all seasons thick and 
muddy. The breadth of the river, when at its low- 
est, is one mile ; its depth is ffty fathoms, and its 
velocity six miles per hour, 

5. " The annual flood of the Congo commences 
before any rains have fallen south of the equator, 
and agrees correctly with the floods of the Niger, 
calculating the water to have flowed from Bam 
barra at the rate of three miles per hour." 

The principal objections to this hypothesis were, 
first, that it made the river to flow across a great 
chain of mountains, or rather across a tract, gen- 
erally supposed by geographers to be occupied by 
the vast chain of the Kong mountains, " the great 
central Belt of Africa," as they used to call it : 
secondly, that it assigned to the Niger a length 
which surpassed that of every other known river, 
and which, therefore, ought not to be admitted upon 
anything much short of distinct and positive proof. 



242 tuckey's exfedition to the cois'go. 

The fourth hypothesis, or that which supposed 
the Niger to enter the Atlantic through the nu- 
merous channels which were known to exist in the 
low alluvial tract at the head of the Gulf of Guinea, 
was started by a German geographer named Rei- 
chard, and first published in the year 1808, nearly 
three years after Park's death. The principal ar. 
gument in its favour was afforded by the physical^ 
character of that part of the African coast, which 
bore a considerable resemblance to the deltas at 
the mouth of several large rivers, as the Nile, the 
Ganges, the Indus, &c. The principal objection 
to it was, that, like the third hypothesis, it supposed 
the Niger, in its passage to the southward, to flow 
through the barrier of the Kong Mountains, which 
were generally admitted to stretch uninterruptedly 
across the middle of the African continent. Nev- 
ertheless, this fourth hypothesis has been found to 
be correct in its material features. 

Such, then, are the various opinions which, for 
several years after Park's death, afforded to the 
learned and the speculative an ample fund of con- 
troversy concerning the termination of the Niger. 
The first renewal of the attempt to solve that great 
problem was made in 1816; when the British gov- 
ernment, seeking to test the correctness of Park's 
hypothesis, sent out an expedition under Captain 
Tuckey to ascend the Zaire or Congo, and deter- 
mine whether it really were the outlet of the Ni- 
ger. This expedition was conducted with great 
ability, yet the issue of it was eminently disas- 
trous, " adding largely to the catalogue of martyrs 
to the spirit of African discovery."* The enter- 

* Of sixty-six persons who embarked, twenty-one were doom 



clapperton's first journey. 243 

prising commander, having succeeded in tracing 
the river upw^ard to the distance of 280 miles, re- 
turned to its mouth, and died shortly afterward. 

The failure of this expedition left the question of 
the identity of the Niger and the Congo still unde- 
cided. Mter the lapse of six years, another at- 
tempt to ascertain the lower course and termination 
of the Niger was made by the British government, 
who for this purpose engaged Lieutenant Clap- 
perton, in conjunction with Major Denham and 
Dr. Oudney, to penetrate to Timbuctoo. Start- 
ing from Tripoli, on the Mediterranean, with a 
caravan of merchants, Denham and Clapperton pro- 
ceeded to the southward, and, crossing the Great 
Desert, reached the vast lake bearing the name of 
Tchad; and, while the former occupied himself in 
examining that remarkable inland sea, Clapperton 
penetrated to the westward as far as Sackatoo, a 
town standing on a river which probably runs into 
the Niger. Beyond Sackatoo Clapperton was un- 
able to proceed ; but he there learned that the Ni- 
ger ran to the southward, and that it entered the 
sea at Funda. This latter piece of intelhgence 
was however of little use, inasmuch as nobody 
knew where Funda was. 

Returning to England with the information 
which he had gathered, Clapperton was raised to 
the rank of commander, and almost immediately 
afterward engaged to proceed on a second expedi- 
tion, in company with Captain Pearce, Mr. Dick- 
son, and Dr. Morrison. Upon this occasion he 

ed never to return. The captain himself, the lieutenant, the 
purser, the botanist, the collector of objects of natural history, 
and the comparative anatomist, were among the sufferers, 

T 



244 clapperton's second jouaney. 

was attended by his "faithful servant," Richard 
Lander, who was destined within a few years to 
acquire celebrity in the field of African discovery ; 
and then, within a few years more, to add his 
name to the list of those who had fallen in that fa- 
tal field. 

In this second expedition, Clapperton entered 
Africa upon the west from the Atlantic, instead of 
as in the former one, entering it upon the north 
from the Mediterranean. Starting early in De- 
cember, 1825, from Badagry, which is situated a 
little to the eastward of Cape Coast Castle, and 
journeying towards the northeast, he reached, about 
the middle of January, the town of Katunga, which 
is the capital of the kingdom of Yarriba, and which 
lies at a short distance to the west of the Niger. 
Continuing his journey hence to the northward, he 
reached the Niger at Boossa, the scene of Park's 
death ; crossing the river below that place, he 
proceeded to the northeast, until he an-ived at the 
great commercial city of Kano, the capital of Hous- 
sa, which he had reached in his former journey 
from a different direction. From Kano he turned 
westward, and visited Sackatoo, which had been 
the limit of his progress to the westward on his 
former journey. At Sackatoo he was detained by 
Sultan Bello, the king or chief of the country there- 
about ; and on the 13th of April, 1827, he died ot 
dysentery at a village in the vicinity of that town. 
His attendant, Richard Lander, "the only survi- 
ving member of the expedition," after performing 
his last duties to his master, returned to Kano ; 
and thence he proceeded to the southward, with 
the laudable design of embarking on some branch 



EXPEDITION OF THE LADDERS. 245 

of the Niger, and accomplishing the great object 
of the expedition, by tracing the river to its ter- 
mination. He succeeded in reaching a place call- 
ed Dunrora, which he understood to lie to the 
west of Funda, and to be at no great distance from 
the sea ; but his farther progress was there stop- 
ped by the natives, and he was compelled to return 
to the northward and regain the coast at Badagry. 

Shortly after Richard Lander's retura to Eng- 
land, the British government determined to employ 
him in another attempt to discover the termination 
of the Niger. On the 31st of December, 1829, in- 
structions were issued to him from Sir George Mur- 
ray, the colonial secretary of state, to embark on 
board a vessel for the western coast of Africa, to 
proceed inland from Badagry until he reached the 
banks of the Niger, or the Quorra, as it had been 
found to be called in its lower course ; and, " after 
having once gained the banks of the Quorra, to fol- 
low its course, if possible, to its termination, where- 
ever that might be." 

On the 9th of January, 1830, Richard Lander 
embarked at Portsmouth, together with his brother 
John, who had " eagerly volunteered to accompany 
him ;" and, on the 31st of March, started from Ba- 
dagry on his journey inland. On the 17th of June 
the travellers reached Boossa, the scene of Park's 
death ; and, during the few days which they remain- 
ed at that place, they were indefatigable (£is we have 
related in the preceding chapter) in endeavouring 
to recover some of the papers and other effects of 
their ill-fated predecessor. On the 23d of June 
they quitted Poossa, and, tracing the river upward, 
reached Yaoorie on the 27th ; at this place, also 



246 THE NIGER FOUND TO TERMINATE 

(as we have likewise related), they renewed theii 
efforts to obtain some of Park's papers. The ac 
count which they give of the navigation between 
Boossa and Yaoorie exposes some of the obstacles 
which Park had to contend with. 

" The enterprising Mr. Park," they say, " must 
have had a thousand difficulties to overcome in his 
voyage down the Niger. It was about this time of 
the year that he arrived at Yaoorie, and the river 
it is said, was then about the same height as it is 
at present. The canoe-men, who in all probability 
were his slaves, were said to be chained to the ca- 
noe, in order to prevent their running away. His 
pilot was unacquainted with the river any farther 
and therefore he received his wages here in Yaoo- 
rie, and returned to his own country ; and Mr. Park, 
with a companion and three white boys, continued 
their journey down the Niger, without any person 
whatever to point out the safest channel or warn 
them of their danger." 

Returning to Boossa on the 5th of August, the 
travellers, after some delay, embarked on the Niger 
on the 20th of September, in the hope of accom- 
plishing the grand object of their enterprise, and 
tracing the river to its termination. In descending 
the river they met with various adventures, and 
were at times exposed to the risk of being pre- 
vented from proceeding on their way. Surmount, 
ing, however, with prudence and energy, all obsta- 
cles, they had the satisfaction, on the 14th of No- 
vember, of finding themselves " influenced by the 
tide ;" and on the following day they entered Brass 
Town, where they saw, " with emotions of joy," 
a white man, who informed them that he was mas- 



IN THE GTTLF OF GVlhAA. 24*^ 

ter of a Spanish schooner then lying in the Firs 
Brass River. This " First Brass River" the^ 
understood to be identical with that called by Eu 
ropeans the Nun, one of those numerous streams 
which empty themselves into the Atlantic at the 
head of the Gulf of Guinea, and which, according 
to the hypothesis of Reichard, as above stated, were 
the outlets of the Niger. On the evening of the 
17th of November, Richard Lander, who had pre- 
ceded his brother, arrived in the " Second Brass 
River," which is a large branch of the Quorra ; 
and, half an hour afterward, heard "the welcome 
sound of the surf on the beach." At seven o'clock 
on the following morning he arrived in the " First 
Brass River" (or the main branch of the Quorra), 
which proved to be the stream already known to 
Europeans by the name of the Nun ; and, about 
a quarter of an hour afterward, descried at a dis- 
tance two vessels lying at anchor within its mouth, 
a sight which, to use his own expression, occasioned 
emotions of delight " quite beyond his powers of 
description." A few days afterward he was re- 
joined by his brother ; and the two travellers quit- 
ting the coast of Africa, after various delays, arri- 
ved at Portsmouth on the 9th of June, 1831.* 
Thus, at last, the efforts of the British govem- 

* They left England again in 1832, with two small steam-ves- 
sels, on a trading expedition, fitted out by some merchants of 
Liverpool, with the view of ascending the Niger as far as Sack 
atoo or Timbuctoo. Richard Lander was wounded in this en- 
terprise, and died in consequence at Fernando Po, on the 6th of 
February, 1834. As a commercial speculation, the expedition is 
stated to have wholly failed ; in a geographical point of view, it 
has been productive of a considerable accession to our stock 
of information concermng the lower part of the course of the 
Niger. 



248 CONCLUSION. 

ment to ascertain the termination of the Niger were 
crowned with success ; and through the steady per. 
severance of two individuals, under the favour of 
Divine Providence, a question which had strongly 
agitated the world, and occasioned the sacrifice of 
many lives, was happily set at rest. The research- 
es of their predecessors had indeed diminished the 
uncertainty which attached to that question in the 
days of Park ; and, before they left England, it was 
generally thought that the Niger would be found to 
enter the Gulf of Guinea. To the Landers belongs 
the merit of establishing the correctness of this 
opinion, and at the same time dispelling a cloud of 
conjectures concerning the course which the river 
took before reaching that termination. Of the pru- 
dence, energy, and fortitude which marked their 
conduct, the interesting Journal which records their 
labours affords abundant evidence ; and it is high, 
but not unmerited, praise to say, that they were 
worthy to finish a work in which the first success 
ful step had been taken by Park 



THE END 



l€M '^ 



'ALl 



